


A Candle in the Dark

by PinguinoSentado



Series: Papergirl [5]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Angst, F/F, Femslash, Mild Language, Some Spoilers for the Railroad Main Plot, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-26 02:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6220081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PinguinoSentado/pseuds/PinguinoSentado
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piper is forced to leave Diamond City behind when she finds herself targeted by the Brotherhood of Steel. As Nora tries to keep her safe, Ann travels to the Institute to find out who she really is.</p><p>Some spoilers for the Railroad's main plot but not really. I'm just tagging it for completeness.<br/>As always, comments and criticism are welcome. You can also find me on Tumblr under the same name.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Unfinished Business

People-watching had always been a favorite pastime of Nora’s. Before the war, Nate had developed a little ritual around it. They would go to the mall, buy a terrible meal at the food court, and invent bizarre stories for the characters that were unfortunate enough to draw their ire. As horribly clichéd as it was, she still loved it. It had been special. It had been with Nate.

It had also helped immensely that their mall of choice was just a few blocks from a local high school. They probably should have shown more mercy to the struggling youths.

Now, with the war long passed and those struggling youths long gone, Nora tried to pick up the old practice. It was harder than it should have been. Diamond City was rife with targets, every shadowed corner giving birth to some new, bizarre twist on human life. From her perch at the noodle bar, she should have been able to look in any direction, pick any sad sack of rags, and tear into them with abandon.

She watched one poor woman wearing what must have been a tattered burlap sack as a shirt and pants that looked like ancient, but expensive-looking jeans. Completing the outfit were a pair of mismatched shoes and a single sock that frayed to nothing as it reached her toes.

_Come on, this is an easy one. Just look at her. Like a… homeless… tree…. Unbelievable. You can do better than that. Nate could do better in his sleep._

Nora sighed. Nothing. The woman shambled further into the market but remained in plain view, taunting Nora with her continued presence. Nate would have been appalled. Piper would have been sick.

A fond smile grew over Nora's face. Introducing the lovely reporter to the game had been Nora’s best decision since kissing her. Ever since they had started to play, Piper would graciously allow Nora to start them off before murdering her with laughter. Piper knew everything about everyone. Between that and her cutting wit, it made the game grossly one-sided.

It was probably why Nora was so out of practice. She peered over her shoulder, chancing a look toward Publick Occurrences. Nat was cut front with a stack of papers but her older sister was nowhere to be seen. She was probably inside, staring at her computer, pecking out another article about the Institute’s dastardly ways. There had been a lot of those lately. The most recent one focused on the Institute’s treatment of Synths, using quotes from an interview Nora tried very hard not to think about.

The coward sunk deeper into her noodles. She had meant what she said when they had first returned to the city. She loved Piper. She would wait as long as it took, and she would do it not only because Piper was worth that kind of patience, but because she deserved it.

She also deserved a woman who, unlike Nora, was not afraid to face what had happened. Nora squinted into the murky waters of her lunch and found something that might have been her reflection. _Just admit it. If you can’t face what happened, you can’t help Piper get through it._

Piper had loved Ann. Nora winced at the flood of jealous anger. _Yes, she loved Ann, but only because she was you._

Machson’s voice echoed in her mind. Piper had been fooled, tricked by a Synth with only a few weeks of training. The woman Nora loved more than anything had loved a cheap imitation. She had not been able to tell the difference between the real Nora and the fake.

_Only Ann wasn’t even a good copy, was she? You wouldn’t have had the courage to break it off and save the woman Piper really loved. You would have lied. You would have stayed._

Stung by her own internal monologue, Nora glared at the bowl. She would have stayed in that prison forever if that was what it took to keep Piper alive. She would have done anything to keep her safe.

_Then grow up and tell her. Ask her about Ann. Help her move on by being there for her, not by pouring your angst into a bowl of..._

Nora smirked, amused that her own pep talk had ended so abruptly. Apparently describing her lunch was even more horrific than facing what had happened between Piper and Ann. She ran a hand through her hair and groaned, her appetite vanishing into the murky water. She needed to take a walk. This was getting her nowhere.

“Hey, Blue,” Piper’s voice came tentatively over Nora’s shoulder. “Going somewhere?”

Nora turned. Even with everything that had happened, seeing Piper always made her smile. All the self-loathing brought on by her moments of quiet vanished whenever that press cap bobbed into view. “I was, but seeing as you’re already here, we can stay. If you’re hungry, that is. Or we can go back to your place. Or the stands. I haven’t been in a few hundred years.”

Piper laughed as Nora tried to regain control of her babbling. “The view isn’t worth rubbing elbows with Diamond City’s elite. Trust me, whatever you remember is probably much better.”

“I love that you make friends everywhere you go. It’s heartwarming, really.”

The reporter gave Nora a playful shove as she ordered her own lunch. Nora settled back in and quietly pushed her own bowl away, afraid her thoughts would bubble to the surface and betray her moments of weakness to the world.

“What are you doing out here, anyway? Eyeing the lovely Saint Erin?”

Nora blinked dumbly. “Who?”

Piper nodded toward the burlap lady. “Her. She’ll give you the shirt off her back, but you’ll never get her out of those jeans.”

It took a full second for Nora to register the joke. After that, peels of cackling laughter threatened to empty the market. Piper took her time in ordering her lunch as Nora tried to cobble together enough dignity to resemble a human being. It took far longer than she had planned. By the time her sides had stopped shaking, Piper the journalist had replaced Piper the comedian, and she was already hunting up a story.

Diamond City’s favorite noodle-slinging Protectron was gabbling something at Piper that made her giggle. Nora had long-since abandoned any attempts at eavesdropping on the two. Japanese had not been her choice in second language, or third for that matter, and Piper was clever enough to give little away even when she replied in English.

“The game’s up, Blue,” Piper said after a brief chat. Nora had been eyeing the burlap bag woman and quickly turned her attention back. “Takahashi-san here’s told me everything.”

Teasing though she was, the fear that the robot had somehow peered into Nora’s mind just a moment ago set her panicking. It only lasted a second, and if anyone else had been watching her, it would have gone unnoticed. But this was Piper.

“Everything alright?” the too-perceptive journalist asked. Nora loved Piper’s voice, but she hated what it had become. It was so cautious, so scared to ask if anything was going on in Nora’s head. Was she so transparent?

“Yeah,” Nora lied. She hesitated. Piper noticed but was too sweet to ask. “No,” she finally admitted. “Listen, I wanted to talk. About what happened.”

All the blood drained from Piper’s face. Nora panicked. “No no, it’s not about you. I wanted to apologize,” she babbled. Piper fidgeted uncomfortably as Nora tried to muddle through an apology that had gone better in her head. She had never been very good at this. “Listen. I haven’t been there for you. You’ve been working on the paper and I’ve just been here, waiting for you to get better on your own. That’s not fair to you.”

Piper’s face had regained a little of the light that Nora loved to see. “Blue –“

“So,” Nora bowled right over the smaller woman, not wanting to give herself the chance to stop. “I wanted to talk to you. About her. About everything that happened. I know it’s been bothering you. You deserve to be able to let that out.”

Her words seemed to leave them both over a cliff, stopping so sharply as Nora’s courage failed her. Piper’s eyes skittered over the ground, hopped onto the bar, and finally climbed to meet Nora’s before jumping away and doing it all again. “I can’t. I mean, I want to. But you don’t have to.”

“I know you…” Nora fumbled about for the right word. “She meant something to you. Even after everything. I know it hurt. Watching her die.”

Piper winced. “It shouldn’t have,” she whispered.

“But it did. And that’s okay,” Diamond City’s infamous Mutant killer slid one trembling hand across the bar, so terrifyingly close to Piper’s that she nearly got up and ran. “I understand. She saved me, right? Brought me back to you. If you want to talk about her, I’m here for you.”

Nora watched as Piper’s expression changed into one she had not seen in weeks. Her eyes began to focus on Nora, lighting up just a little more and staying on her just a little longer. It was almost enough for Nora to believe everything would be alright. They could come back from this.

“Miss Wright.”

A very brave Security officer spoke from behind the two women. Nora rounded on him, searching for a reason not to rip his head off and punt it across the street. Judging by his expression, Piper was giving him much the same look.

The man took a step back. “Uh, sorry, uh, miss, but there’s someone – er- a lot of people, actually, at the gate for you.”

Piper stood with the cool, unnerving grace of a mountain lion. “Who?”

“Brotherhood of Steel, miss.”

 

“Friends. Everywhere you go, just more and more friends.”

Nora had been trying to introduce a little levity into their death march to the stadium entrance. It helped not at all. Piper looked like she was going to be sick. There were no sounds from the main gate. No one was shouting, no one was shooting, and no one was telling the Brotherhood to bugger off and come back at a less delicate time. That last was the worst.

It was not until they reached the gate that Nora realized why Piper had ignored the comment. One of the Brotherhood stepped forward. “Good, you’re both here.”

Both. So Ann had done this. Nora nearly groaned aloud as she sized up the mess that Synth had left them in. A dozen Brotherhood soldiers, three in Power Armor, stood in an angry wedge just beyond the line of afternoon sunlight drawn between them. A cordon of Security officers nervously cradled their pipe rifles and fidgeted in their baseball gear. Numbers would tell if it came to a fight, but a lot of good people would die before they did.

Piper stood tall and defiant. She had missed her calling as an actress. “Knight Captain. What is it I can assist you and the Brotherhood with today?”

“Piper Wright,” the voice boomed. “You and your companion stand accused of murdering a detachment of Brotherhood soldiers sent to clear out members of the resistance known as the Railroad. You are to surrender your arms and come with me to the Predwyn.”

“Where what, you hold a two-minute trial and chuck us out the nearest window?”

Even in his full armor the Knight Captain managed to look taken aback. “You’re lucky you’re getting a trial at all!” he shouted indignantly. “We should have just kicked down your door and made an example of you!”

Before Piper could goad him further, Nora stepped in. “That wasn’t her! The Institute killed your men, not Piper.”

Piper whirled on Nora, her eyes more terrifying than the walking armory now standing in front of them. It was the armory that spoke first. “What are you talking about?”

“An Institute Synth had infiltrated the Railroad. After it nearly killed me, Piper went to root it out. Your men would have been fine if they hadn’t taken shots at us first.”

Nora had never been clear on where ‘stretching the truth’ ended and actual lying began. Given her pre-war profession, she should probably have worked that out before now, but law had never really suited her anyway.

“My men,” growled the Captain. “Did their duties. A lot of them died by your hands, so I don’t really care whose fault it was. Only who pulled the trigger.”

“Yeah, why look for who’s pulling the strings when the messenger is standing right there,” Piper spat. “Your men went in shooting at anything that moved. One of them even came at Nora with a minigun and she let him live. Are you going to thank her by putting a bullet in her head?”

Nora gritted her teeth and tried very hard not to unload into the crowd of Brotherhood soldiers. It was bad enough that Ann was a better person than Nora but now she was building Nora’s reputation? She handled one of these guys with a minigun? Next she would find out the damn Synth had done it bare-handed.

“Anything you say in your defense will be weighed against the crimes you committed against the Brotherhood,” the Knight-Captain said impatiently. “I’m growing tired of asking so this will be the last time. Come with me, both of you, or we will take you by force.”

Every eye in the crowd turned to Nora. It seemed Ann’s exploits against the Brotherhood had not been exaggerated. If it came to a fight, every gun out there would immediately swing Nora’s way. She cursed the moment she had first bragged to Piper about that Deathclaw. Reputation, it seemed, was a double-edged sword.

“No one is taking them anywhere.”

As one, every head in the crowd turned to find the speaker. Nora blinked and wondered if she was hallucinating. The guards parted. Only Piper managed to find her voice. “McDonough?!”

“Mayor McDonough,” the suited man trundled down the stairs and, with evident irritation, placed himself between Piper Wright and a firing squad. “I’ll thank you to use my proper title while I’m offering you asylum.”

“Asylum?!” Piper parroted. Her cry was echoed in turn by the Brotherhood Knight.

“Indeed. Piper Wright is a citizen of Diamond City. We may have out differences, but I’ll not stand by and let her be intimidated like this.”

Now Piper’s mouth did fall open. Nora could only stare, looking from one to the other, convinced this was just another strange dream brought on by too many blows to the head. The Mayor hated Piper like a drunk hated the morning and Piper hated him just as much. She had even gone so far as to print subversive articles that painted him as an Institute Synth. Nora had never seen them in the same room without a fight breaking out.

The Captain made a very undignified sputter that sounded a thousand times as strange when piped through his armor’s speakers. “You can’t seriously be siding with this woman.”

“This,” the Mayor made a grandiose gesture toward the stadium. “Is a place of civilization, a bastion of order in the Wasteland. It cannot be intimidated, cannot be torn down by a band of mercenaries. The people of Diamond City stand together, no matter our differences, and no matter the threat.”

Still convinced this was all a strange dream, Nora looked down to make sure she was still wearing pants. The guards around her were standing a bit straighter, the words of the Mayor lending steel to their spines. Piper looked like her eyes would pop out of her head. She looked at Nora, grasping desperately for some strand of sanity that neither of them could find.

The Captain looked from the Mayor to the two women he had come to arrest, then puffed himself up with an exaggerated breath. “Very well,” he said, turning away to the obvious relief of his minions. “I will return to the Prydwen. But this is not over.”

A sharp hand signal put the soldiers back on their heels and marching back out into the Wasteland, their footfalls echoing with the promise of a swift return. Nora watched them go, hands on her rifle and eyes on Piper Wright, wanted criminal and fugitive from the Brotherhood of Steel. She could scarcely believe it.

Mayor McDonough, or more likely the Synth who replaced him, strode toward Piper. “I suppose I can’t ask you to print a retraction of your article after helping you out, now can I?”

“You can’t buy the press, McDonough,” Piper said distractedly. After a moment of silence, she let her breath come rushing out. “But thank you.”

Nora watched as the Mayor Piper loved to hate showed himself. “You may not thank me in a moment,” he chortled before going as solemn as a gravedigger. “These people are dangerous. And they are after you. These walls shelter many, Piper. More than just you and your friend. As grateful as we are to her...”

He gestured vaguely toward the city as his words trailed off. Nora was speechless. He was asking her to leave? Piper Wright, leaving Diamond City? There was no Diamond City without her, no life without the deep and tattered red moving through the beating heart.

Piper looked miserably at the pavement. “Nat,” she whispered. “What am I going to tell Nat?”

“Your sister is more than welcome to stay,” McDonough abruptly shifted back to his Synth personality. “She has done nothing wrong, and as far as I can tell, the Brotherhood is not after her. Without her older sister around, she may even turn into a model citizen.”

Nora would have laughed if Piper had not looked so thoroughly sick. She was not even ripping McDonough apart for his commentary. “I’ll give you a chance to say goodbye,” the Mayor continued softly. “But I must ask that you leave as quickly as possible.”

Piper Wright, journalist of the Commonwealth and now fugitive from the Brotherhood of Steel, adjusted the brim of her cap to hide her eyes. Nora doubted anyone but her could see the shadow of terror that crossed her face. With the softest touch, Nora put one hand on her arm. She had never been much for words, but, as she had told Piper so long ago, she was awfully good at that ‘point-and-shoot’ thing. So long as Piper would have her, Nora would go wherever she pointed.

“It’s not goodbye,” Nora promised quietly. “We’ll be back before she knows we’re gone.”

Piper’s voice was a trembling whisper. “I can’t leave her, Blue. I can’t. Not again.”

Nora moved her hand up to the woman’s shoulder as she moved in front of her. “Hey,” she gripped Piper’s other arm just as gently. “It’s going to be alright. Nat’s a big girl. She knows you’ll be back.”

The guards were beginning to drift back to their posts but most of them were still watching Piper. Nora thought she saw more than a few sad faces there. Some of them, at least, knew what Diamond City had just lost. The Mayor had retreated to the shade of the ticket booths with his cronies, leaving Piper all alone against the Wasteland.

Well, not all alone. “I’ll be right there with you, Piper,” Nora promised. “And if anyone comes back here looking for you, they’ll be in for a rough surprise.” Piper’s head tilted up just slightly. Nora smiled. “They got lucky today. They haven’t seen the scary sister.”

Piper’s quiet laughter carried like chimes on the wind, bringing light to shadowed courtyard. “Natalie,” she sighed as the melody faded. “I don’t know what I’d do without her. Without either of you.”

Nora grinned. “You’d just be the girl in the red coat, and the Wasteland would be such a quiet place.”

The wistful smile on Piper’s face soon faded as she watched the guards slowly filter back inside the city. This was her home. Where would she go? Who would take care of Nat? Would she ever see her again? Nora waited for her to ask, waited to promise her that she would be back before Nat even knew she was gone.

It never came. “I’m going to go say goodbye,” Piper said, her voice already shaking.

“I’ll go with you.”

“No,” Piper was already walking inside. “Having Nat see me cry is bad enough. Can’t have you there, too.”

As the last voice of the free press vanished under the stands, the shadows returned to the courtyard. Nora stood alone, her eyes on the stairs as Piper climbed up and out of sight. The distant nettling of gunfire was the only sound. The guards were quiet. There was no more wind. It was as though the world had stopped to watch, to wrap itself around the girl in the press cap in solemn, understanding silence.

Nora broke that silence. She was not good for much anymore. Her skills as a lawyer, already suspect, had only frayed with time. Her skills as a mother had scarcely had time to grow before they were packed away. Only Natalie had brought them out again, blowing away the dust and giving her a chance to be normal again. And now they would be left to rust once more. There was no fairness in that.

The bolt of her rifle slid like a dream, the weight so familiar, so reliable in her hands. This was what she was good at. A few guards looked her way as she slowly checked her magazines, her sidearm, her Deathclaw knife. She smiled. She needed a name for it. Mole Rat’s Tooth had a nice ring to it.

Her eyes turned to the Wasteland, following the path of the Brotherhood harbingers. This, she swore to herself and to them, would be the last time. Piper Wright would never again be ripped from her family. It did not matter what it cost Nora, what it cost the world.

This, she swore to Piper and to Natalie, would be the last time.


	2. Factory Rejects

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann arrives at the Institute and meets Father in person

Ann rested one hand on the glass. She had probably been here awhile, waiting for the attentions of the voice in the ceiling, but she honestly did not know. Her mind had been wandering lately.

The Institute was a remarkable place. Deep underground, away from all the distractions and chaos of the real world, a thousand great minds pondered the unsolvable mysteries of the world. Ann had half-expected to find herself walking into a trap. It would have been simpler that way. When no one put a bag over her head as she walked through the door, she was almost disappointed that she would not get to beat ten shades of hell out of everyone here. She really wanted to hate them.

But this place was so green. Very little could push the Synth’s one-track mind away from Piper Wright, but the color green was doing a magnificent job. She could not stop staring at the plants, at the clear, clean water. It should not have been possible. Water was not meant to be that clear. When no one was watching, she had tried it, tipping herself over the railing to catch it between her fingers and cup in her outstretched hand. It tasted like nothing. It was unbelievable.

The door behind her hissed quietly open. Ann turned away from the magnificent vista to find her host waiting at the door. “Is everything to your satisfaction?”

Father was an appropriate name for the man. Wizened and frail, he still carried himself as the stern yet loving parent to a child that had so profoundly lost its way. That was how he saw the world, it seemed, and it was almost endearing. But the Wasteland had marked him, just as it had everyone else. Ann could see it in his eyes. If just one person, one perfect Synth, survived to see a brighter tomorrow, then it was worth the cost. He was cold, calculating, and brilliant.

And it was those eyes that most discomforted Ann. He had a way of looking at her that made her distinctly uncomfortable. She was, she realized, rather tired of everyone seeing Nora when they looked at her.

“It is,” Ann lied.

“Good,” Father strode slowly into the room. He had been acting awkwardly around her ever since she had arrived, like he had no idea what he was supposed to say or do but he knew he had to be there. In that, they should have found some common ground. “Again, I must thank you for agreeing to meet with me. My security personnel have been informed of your special arrangement. Should you desire to leave at any time, no one will stop you.”

Ann liked to think she knew a lie when she heard one but this was clearly an exception. He sounded sincere, but he was watching her so intently, studying her reactions far too closely for it to be anything but false. “Thank you,” she looked back out the window. “Though I can’t imagine you get too many people wanting to leave.”

“Quite true,” Father stepped up to the glass beside her. “I like to think I provide them a home here, a sanctuary, free from threat of Raider gangs or Super Mutants.”

The old man had probably never even seen a Super Mutant. That was not his fault, exactly, but it still bothered her. “It’s impressive,” Ann admitted, this time not needing to stretch the truth. “I’ve never seen a place like this.”

“I should think that a few still exist,” Father chuckled at nothing in particular. “But such places are no doubt few and far between. Places of learning, of kinship, and the pursuit of something greater. Places like this are what the world should be. Don’t you agree?”

“I don’t think anyone would argue that,” Ann jerked her head toward what looked to be a happy couple in lab coats. “But the Commonwealth still has one or two. You just need to know where to look.”

“So you’ve said. This Piper Wright you’re so fond of. She seems to believe Diamond City is such a place. You seem to agree. Why is that?”

The question was baffling. She considered describing in detail the things that made the Commonwealth livable, but faltered at the last moment. The list was weighted heavily with the explicit adventures of her and the newspaper girl. “The people up there live under constant threat of death. Everything they do is almost certainly going to be their last. It’s easy to believe that they do nothing more than shoot up chems, ransack each others’ homes, and stab each other over bottle caps. That’s what I believed when I went up there. Now I know that’s not true. There are families there, communities.”

“I see. Such circumstances no doubt lead to a certain zeal for life.”

Ann shook her head. “That’s not what I mean. I’ve seen people make such sacrifices for each other when it would have been easier to just walk away. And I don’t just mean Piper or the Railroad, I mean everyone. Yes, some of them choose to become Raiders, but so many more choose just to live, or even to risk their lives to save complete strangers.”

Father cocked his head slightly. “You seem infatuated with them.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far,” Ann admitted ruefully. “But you see what I’m after, right? You could do so much more if you worked with them, helped them. Don’t they deserve that chance?”

“Such was my belief when I took over the Institute. I believed that we should save all that we could. It is the path any decent man would take, after all,” the old man suddenly looked far beyond late years. “But I was wrong. The Institute has tried in the past. Our actions, so misunderstood by those above ground, were taken as hostilities.”

“Was this before or after you began taking people from their homes?”

Father frowned. He really did look paternal when he did that. “Can you think of a better way to test our human Synths? Placing them into a real home in the real world gives us not only the best chance to improve our design, but it also gives us a chance to prove that our machines are better than their originals.”

Ann, torn between disbelief and abject horror, found herself momentarily at a loss for words. “Are you serious?”

“I admit, it does seem a bit barbaric –“

“Oh, well, at least we’re on the same page,” Ann rolled her eyes. “It’s more than barbaric, it’s murderous. Worse, even!”

“Speaking from a learned experience?”

“You’re damn right!” Ann snapped. “Do you have any idea what it does to someone when you replace the person they love? How do you think it affects them when they learn they’ve been so intimate with a stranger? It’s probably a mercy that most of them end up dead.”

“Is that how you feel for Piper?”

“There’s a whole lot of dead Synths that could tell you exactly how I feel for her.”

Father’s eyes narrowed. “Indeed. So why is it that you are here? Why tell her the truth?”

The change in subject abruptly halted Ann’s tirade. “What?”

“Would it not have been kinder to let her live out the lie? You’ve put her through quite a bit in revealing your secret. Had you carried out your assignment, Piper could have lived a long, happy life with you. She might even have given up the paper.”

_Obviously you’ve never met Piper._ Only one thing in the world meant more to her than the paper and that was her little sister. Nora came in a pleasant, unobtrusive third. Fourth, actually, if she counted that damn hat.

“It wouldn’t have been right,” Ann said, still baffled by the man’s change of topic. “What do you care, anyway? You said Piper wasn’t your concern.”

“And that is the truth,” Father was no longer glaring at Ann but studying her. “I simply wish to know why you made the choices you did. Call it curiosity, nothing more.”

“Then you won’t be hurt if I tell you to drop it. Unless you’d like to talk about your family.”

It was an easy shot to take but Ann had always found herself avoiding the high road. All it did was make you an easy target. She did not even need to know what had happened, just that it hurt when she poked it.

Ann did not give him a chance to poke back. “You said you would answer my questions if I came here. Well, here I am.”

“So you are,” Father found his way to the chair in the corner of the room. The way he fell into the leather upholstery only furthered how appropriate his chosen name really was. “Ask.”

“What am I?”

Ann had learned well from Piper and could now spot a snide answer coming a mile away. “You are a Synth.”

She regretted leaving her rifle across the room. For a man with such brittle bones, he was very glib. “You know what I mean. I’m not like them. When Machson tried to have me kill Piper, I could refuse. I was still me.”

“Interesting,” Father mused. “Though perhaps less so for the late doctor than for us. No doubt he regrets that little oversight.”

Ann smirked. Maybe they would get along after all. “So you didn’t know about that?”

“Not until just now, though I had my suspicions. Surely he witnessed your break-in. If I were in his position, the kill order would have been given just as you reached the cell holding Nora.” The look that crossed Ann’s face cast a shadow long enough to touch Father’s. He put his hands up defensively. “I do not mean to say that I regret what happened. As I have said before, Doctor Machson was something of a rogue agent, and I am quite glad to see him dead.”

“Then he created me,” Ann said. Father nodded. “Does that mean you don’t know what he did?”

“Yes and no,” the old man dragged the meaningless phrase out like it was supposed to give her hope. “I would say that no one knows more about Synthetic life than myself, so while I may not know exactly how you were created, you can feel confident in my guesses. And, if we cannot determine exactly how, perhaps I can shed some light on the why.”

Father creaked to his feet and shuffled over to the window. “You asked why we replace people with Synths. A better question would be why create Synths at all?” He looked to Ann. “Do you have an answer?”

“Voyeurism?”

Her answer failed to amuse the man. “Of a sort. Synths are meant to be better than human life. A Synth has no interest in material wants. It has no interest in inflicting harm without reason. It only desires what it is programmed to desire. You see the appeal? If that desire was the saving of the world from a nuclear fallout, how soon could we see a return of the old world? Not as it was, but better, more pure?”

In the face of such blind optimism, Ann could only roll her eyes. “You’re telling me my one desire was to put Piper on her back?”

“If that is what drives your every action then you and I have very little to discuss.”

Ann bit her tongue and soldiered on, determined not to let her bitterness toward Nora soil the moment. “I don’t know what it was. I know it was to be with Piper but…”

Father’s tone had softened. “Given Machson’s interest in her, and his chosen victim, that is not surprising. But there is more, isn’t there?”

The Synth nodded. “It wasn’t an obsession. When I first saw Piper, when she was about to kill me in the street, I didn’t love her. I wanted to kill her.” Saying the words out loud made her feel unclean. Wrong.

“Perhaps that was your intended purpose, then?”

“Then why didn’t I do it? Why did I start caring about her?”

Father smiled. “I think you can answer that far better than I.”

He was right. Ann could go on for hours about the girl in the press cap. Then, as a wave of relief washed over her, she began to laugh. She had fallen for Piper. She had not been programmed to do it, it had really happened. The fluttering of her heart whenever Piper said her name, the way the smallest touch could set her on fire, it was real. All of it had been real.

Father was giving her an odd look. Ann tried to compose herself. “Sorry. Existential crisis.”

The elderly man let it slide. “In any case, your feelings for Piper Wright were surely real. And that is where we must look to find out who you are. What you are.”

“What do you mean?”

“It has long been a goal, of mine and of the Institute, to create a better Synth, one that can truly feel the world around it. Such deep-feeling, growing, and moralizing life is something we have strived to create for years with little success. Our interactions with the world around us are complex. How these interactions travel through our senses to produce emotions is much more difficult to create,” Father examined Ann for a moment. “I believe Doctor Machson was attempting to solve that problem by creating you.”

Father peered at Ann’s forehead as though it were as clear as glass. “I believe,” he continued. “That he gave you more humanity than he thought. The way you feel toward Piper, toward the people living above ground, says as much. What alterations he made to my own designs I can only guess at, but most important of all was his gift of free will.”

“Free will?”

“As you are aware, all Synths hear the commands of the Institute. This is the voice you heard the night you were to kill Piper. The voice you ignored. Now, normally this would be impossible, but with the evidence standing in front of me, I can only assume that you are somehow different. Perhaps Machson believed that, in turning our orders into suggestions, he could manipulate your growth in a more natural way, without impeding the development of your deeper emotions.”

Ann had turned to the window, choosing to watch the water as her mind chewed on the meaning of her life. “The Compound,” she said quietly. “At the Compound, I killed that woman. I didn’t know why, and afterwards I had to keep telling myself it was the right thing to do. That was him?”

“Perhaps. I’ve read the report on what happened. Is it so hard to believe you simply wanted her dead?”

It was the closest Ann had ever come to death, to being tortured to death in a way no doubt appropriate, given the fate that she had nearly imposed upon Nora. “I don’t know.”

Father smiled broadly. “Neither do I. But I am glad you are here. For now we can figure this out together. Is that not what you want?”

It was. She wanted it more than air. More than life. More than Piper. “Yes.”

The smile turned into a grin. “I am relieved to hear it. If these accommodations are still to your liking, I will see to it that they are made your permanent quarters. No one will disturb you, and should you desire to go above ground for any reason, no one will stop you.”

Ann nodded and gave Father what she hoped was a look of sincerest gratitude. “Thank you.”

“It is my pleasure, Ann.”

Father made for the door, his slow gait giving Ann time to wonder who he was. Had he grown up down here? Probably. He had too few scars for a Wastelander.

“You never told me who she is,” Ann said as he reached the door. Father turned. “Nora. You never told me who she is.”

Father’s smile returned. The door hissed closed as he walked back into the room, his eyes sparkling as they fixed on Ann’s.

“Very well. Have a seat.”

It was a short conversation. Ann listened as Father spoke, and at the end, she understood.


	3. Home Away From Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Nora flee to the Commonwealth in search of safety and a way to stop the Brotherhood

“You’d think I’d be used to this by now,” Piper muttered. When she noticed Nora’s expression, she elaborated. “I’ve said goodbye to Nat a lot lately. I feel like I’m less of a family to her than Arturo these days. It’s not fair to her. Or him, for that matter. I’ll have to find a way to thank him one of these days.”

“You could always write him something sweet in the paper. He did wonders with this,” Nora hefted her rifle. “You can even quote me.”

“Not sure the paper is going to be around much longer,” Piper said miserably. “And if it is… If Nat prints a single word, I swear, she’ll…”

Piper, unable to even consider harming little Natalie, trailed off. “She’s too smart for that,” Nora assured her. But imagining Diamond City without Publick Occurrences held no appeal for Nora. “And don’t worry. You’ll be back causing trouble in no time.”

“That’s the problem with being a cynic, Blue,” Piper scoffed. “The sweet nothings stop being sweet.”

Nora sighed. “You’re right, I’m just saying that to make you feel better,” she waited for Piper to turn her way before sprouting a cheeky grin. “If Nat takes over the paper, there’s no way they’ll go back to the trash you write.”

After a moment of blank staring, Piper burst out laughing. Nora watched as the most beautiful girl in the world fought against the hysterical snickering and lost miserably. Her hands went to her sides as she tried to add some dignity to the fits of snorting that always came with her most sincere moments.

“I’ll –“ Piper sniffed and tried to get a hold of herself. “I’ll let that go this time.” Another bout of laughter bubbled up and forced her to speak from behind her sleeve. “If you weren’t talking about my sister, I’d knock you on your ass for saying that.”

Nora’s own smile, already splitting her face from watching the woman she loved, grew wider. “Someone had to tell you. The girl has a gift. You’re just lucky it hasn’t crossed her mind before now.”

Piper shook her head, settled back against the wall, and continued to shake as she looked out the window. Nora tried not to watch. She loved hearing Piper laugh. She loved seeing her smile. She even loved hearing her pig-snort her way through Nora’s terrible jokes. That, more than anything, she loved. But this was not that same, happy Piper that Nora longed to see.

As Piper’s gaze turned to the world outside, Nora’s own smile faded away. She was losing it. As she watched the street, the one leading back to Diamond City and her little sister, Piper was slowly driving herself mad. Nora wondered if she had ever been here before, staring down a road she could not walk and knowing it was the only way back to her family.

The two had taken shelter in one of the city’s many gutted buildings, climbing a flight of rickety stairs to find both a spot of shade and a place to rest their feet. The streets were suspiciously quiet. Nora kept looking around for an ambush of Raiders, Ghouls, or even the Brotherhood. No one appeared. She found herself wishing for a firefight or even the clatter of masonry in one of the alleys. Anything that would keep Piper’s mind on the moment and off of the sister she had left behind.

So Nora stared out into the empty streets and tried to come up with a plan. The Brotherhood wanted Piper gone. How could they fix that? Well, there was Ann. Maybe all they had to do was offer her body up on a platter and explain that it was all the Institute’s fault.

Even the jealous beast in Nora’s gut shied away from that display. Piper had cared for Ann. Even if it meant getting her back to Diamond City, she would never agree to dig up whatever was left of the Synth and presenting it like a trophy. Assuming there even was anything left.

And, as much as Nora loathed to admit it, the woman had taken care of Piper in her absence, rescued Nora from the Institute, and handed over the woman she loved without a fight. No matter how much she hated the Synth, it was an infuriatingly good person. No doubt that was Piper’s doing somehow.

So, digging up a corpse, how could they stop the Brotherhood?

“Got any ideas?” Piper asked hopefully.

Nora was honest. “None. Unless you’ve got a plan to blow up the Prydwen.”

The journalist was suspiciously quiet for a moment. It was almost long enough to give Nora hope. “We need help. We can’t fight the Brotherhood on our own.”

“Piper,” Nora put on her best mom voice. “We can’t fight the Brotherhood, with or without help.”

“Why not? They started it.”

“And they’ll try pretty damn hard to finish it,” Nora tried to laugh off her sharp tone. “You’re talking about a war.”

“I know what I’m talking about,” Piper answered just as sharply. “That didn’t stop me from trying to help you before.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I went looking for the Railroad because I wanted to prove you were human. I knew perfectly well the kind of fight I was starting but I did it anyway.”

Nora scoffed. “Yeah, look how well that turned out.”

She regretted it as soon as she said it. Piper’s tongue was as sharp as ever. “And I guess you would have preferred me safely at home with Ann?”

_She’s just stressed. You both are. Quit starting a fight and focus._

Nora tried to ignore the jab. “Fine, forget it. I just think it’s a bad idea, going after the Brotherhood head on.”

“Why?” Piper’s blood was still up. She wanted revenge. Or maybe just a good fistfight. “Maybe I should find the Railroad, join up with them.”

“Are you insane?”

“If the Brotherhood thinks I’m on their side, I might as well join up,” Piper said with a shrug.

“And we return to Diamond City when the Railroad emerges victorious over the wicked Brotherhood? Will we be taking on the Institute as well?”

Her sarcasm did not help at all. Piper glowered. “Do you have a better plan? If they’re going to keep me from my sister, they are going to learn exactly what that means. They took my home from me, Blue.”

“And I’ll do whatever it takes to get it back but when it’s all said and done, I’d very much prefer it if you were alive.”

“What do you want me to do, hide under my bed and wait for it to go away?” Piper snipped.

Nora felt herself growing heated. Some small, long-ignored voice inside of her told her to stop. _This is Piper you're abusing, not Ann._ “I would,” she snapped back. “It’s bad enough that you go after the Institute all on your own, but this -“

Piper’s eyes flashed. “You’re damn right I’m going after the Institute! I’d think that after what happened to you –“

“Yeah, I want them gone! I’d tear them apart myself if I could! That doesn’t mean I’m going to drag you into it!”

“Is that what this is about? You don’t want to be here?”

“What?!” Nora sputtered. “No!”

“Then what? You think this is fun for me?”

Nora growled and snapped. “No, dammit, I just want you to be safe!”

“Tell that to the fucking Brotherhood.”

“I’d rather tell that Synth.”

Piper’s voice cracked like a whip. “What did you say?”

The little voice was screaming, now. _Stop. Piper went through hell to get you back._

“I said this is all that Synth’s fault, anyway. What the hell were you two doing picking a fight with them?”

“I thought she was you! I was trying to prove you were human!” Piper was shouting with the voice in Nora’s head, the two of them trying furiously to knock some sense into her.

_She can’t even say your name anymore! She loves you and she can’t even look at you without seeing her!_

She opened her mouth to say something more but Nora did not let her. “How? By following her around and waiting for her to do something so stupid no one would believe she was a Synth?”

“You have no idea what I went through with her!”

_Just stop! Piper doesn’t deserve this! It was Ann! Ann took everything Piper loved about you, every good memory she had, and ruined them!_

She knew the anger was stupid. She knew Piper did not deserve it. The words kept coming. “And it won’t mean a damn thing if you get killed now! Are you going to leave Nat alone?”

Piper’s anger took on an animal look. “That’s why I’m doing this! I want her back! And I thought you were the one person I could count on to help me!”

Only then, as Nora’s own anger was battered aside, did she finally see the tears in Piper’s eyes. “Piper…”

Piper, wet eyes gleaming with hurt, got quietly to her feet. Nora just stared. Of all the people Nora was angry at for this, Piper was the one person who had never deserved her blame and she knew it. She had just been so angry. All she wanted was Piper. She wanted her to be safe. Happy.

The woman rose stiffly. Nora had never seen her like this before. She should have known better. With everything else happening, was it any wonder her words had cut so deep? Piper's voice was flat, uncaring whether anyone was even listening. “Stay here if you want. Or go home. Check on Nat, I don’t care. But I can’t go home, so I’m finding the Railroad, and I’m getting my sister back.”

Nora watched as Piper descended the stairs and made for the street, rubble crunching softly underfoot. Giving her head a good smack against the concrete, Nora pushed herself up and tried to catch up before she ended up left behind.

 

Nora followed her better half through another broken building and reminded herself never to let her feelings get the better of her. Not while they were out here, at least. She had no idea where they were going, what they were looking for, or how long they might be out here, all of which she typically needed to plan their route.

She never did work up the courage to ask. Piper, a dozen feet ahead with her pistol drawn, did not look like she was in a talking mood. The air between them had that horrible quality too familiar to those in love. Like a rabid dog, if Piper noticed Nora drawing too close, she was likely to snap, worsening the poison flowing through them. But neither could Nora leave. She was tethered to Piper, the comfortable feeling that usually brought on replaced by the casual, weighty reminder of a noose around her neck. The further away she drew, the less likely she was to be bit. Right up until she fell too far behind, losing Piper forever and strangling herself in the process.

Luck, at least, was still on their side. They had not gone far before Piper was hailed by someone in tattered leathers and a suspiciously familiar style of hat.

“Miss Wright!” the boy hurried up, eyes darting to the shadows when they were not fixed on the world’s last living celebrity. “Good thing we found you. Des has people looking everywhere for you. You should come with me right away.”

“Desdemona? She’s looking for me?” Piper looked as surprised as Nora.

“We all heard about what happened, ma’am. With the Brotherhood, I mean. They can’t threaten you like that.”

Nora almost felt jealous at the boy’s anger. _That’s my line, you pint-sized shit._

Piper, oblivious to Nora’s frustration, motioned for the boy to lead on. She did not see fit to explain who Des was or who the boy was or where they were going in such a hurry to Nora. The woman quietly kicked herself for angering the one person in the world she truly cared about and followed in ashen silence. Hopefully there was a hot meal at the end of the road. She needed something good after today.

At a shaded corner, the boy motioned them under a set of rotted boards that thoroughly concealed an open door. Piper ducked under without a second thought. As Nora did the same, she noticed the boy staring at her. “It’s good to see you again, miss. We haven’t forgotten how you helped us. I don’t think any of us would be here without you.”

Nora did her best not to strangle him and muttered a very sincere “Don’t mention it.”

With his eyes that wide, it was amazing he managed to miss Nora’s anger. “I mean it. Is it true? You really took down a guy in Power Armor with a flare gun?”

It was all she could do not to grab him by the collar and hurl him through the boards. A flare gun? A fucking flare gun against Power Armor?

The boy kept babbling. “I mean, we were all wondering about the Deathclaw. No offense, ma’am, it’s just crazy to think about. Then you go and stop the Brotherhood like that and people started to believe. If you could kill a Deathclaw with one shot, what’s some kid in a suit?”

Nora paused. She looked back at the kid, allowing a slow, satisfied smile to creep over her face. The Deathclaw _was_ more impressive. “You think that’s scary? I’ll tell you about the time Piper killed a Mirelurk Queen.” She paused for effect, watching the boy’s eyes widen. “With a kickball.”

Beckoning the wide-eyed youth under the boards, Nora slipped into the darkness to find Piper herself standing in a sliver of light. Her face was all but invisible in the shade but Nora could feel her lack of expression. It was like being punched in the gut. It reminded her that she and Piper had never really fought, at least, not since they had first met, and not like she and Nate had before the war. Maybe she had just been younger then. Or maybe she and Piper just fit.

The boy produced a lantern from a nearby windowsill and lit it. The eerie, orange glow did nothing to soften Piper’s disapproval. Without a word, she stalked after the boy as he went deeper into the building, leaving Nora all alone in the dark.

It was a long, silent walk to the Railroad. Their guide did not feel the need to speak. Only a few times did he say something to Piper, and every time the conversation was short and unwieldy. The poor kid idolized Piper.

And Piper was in a poor mood, thanks to her even poorer taste in women. Nora trailed behind far enough to fade into the darkness. She wanted to apologize, tell Piper that nothing in the world would stop her from getting her back to her sister, but she said nothing. In the end, she was a coward.

The first sentry appeared in a dilapidated atrium, his rifle barrel poking over the lip of a second-story balcony. He called out a challenge and their guide answered, provoking an excited whoop. “You found her?”

The boy beamed and gestured to the girl in the red coat. “Sure did!”

Leaning over the balcony, something that Nora would not have advised given its obvious decay, the sentry waved them through the door. “It’s good to see you, Miss Wright! Don’t worry, we’ll set the Brotherhood straight in no time!”

Hardly believing her ears, Nora jogged up behind Piper. It was like she had a whole army waiting for her. “You can fill me in on what happened whenever you like.”

It was supposed to come out flippant but sincere, a casual reminder that Nora had not been there but that Piper had her trust. Instead, it came out bitter.

Piper bristled. “You’ll get the story. Sorry I couldn’t save you in a more convenient way. Next time I’ll ask for advice.”

Nora winced. That age-old adage, ‘think before you speak,’ had never had a more appropriate target than Nora. One of these days she was going to learn to bite her tongue.

The Railroad was not far ahead. A few more decrepit buildings and a few more alleys to scamper through brought them to their doorstep, such as it was. Nora was actually mildly impressed. She remembered the building from before but could not place the name. One of the many government offices she had been forced to visit during her years as a lawyer, it held no happy memories.

Still working out exactly where they were, Nora nearly missed the Railroad sentries opening the doors for the Commonwealth’s most iconic journalist and her tagalong. The pair were rushed inside with the same promises the last two men had given them: safety and revenge.

“So,” Nora chose her tone carefully as they walked through the main doors. “What should I be expecting here?”

Piper shrugged. “Lots of kids with guns,” she said sharply, then turned deadpan. “You saved them the last time you were here. There was a Brotherhood raid. You went into the line after I asked you to help them. They made it out the back door because you gave them time to flee.”

And she had beaten a suit of Power Armor with nothing but a flare gun. Nora shook her head. She had stayed, had she? Of course she had. Piper had asked her to save a bunch of unwashed teenagers hell-bent on going to war and she had jumped right in.

Nora simply nodded. She wanted to say something kind, to the effect of ‘I’m glad I did,’ but nothing came out. There was already enough tension between them, she told herself. There was no need to bring Ann back into it.

“Desdemona is the woman in charge,” Piper finished as they rounded a corner. “There’s a Synth named Glory who will probably pick a fight with you. And there’s Deacon.” Piper’s lips curled into a little smile. “I like him.”

“Great,” Nora grumbled without thinking. “Competition.”

Not giving Nora a chance to see Piper’s reaction, the woman who must have been Desdemona hailed them from across the room. The white-haired woman smirking in the corner was probably Glory. Nora wondered what Ann had done to piss her off. Maybe Glory had known Ann’s little secret.

“Desdemona,” Piper said as they crossed the room. “I –“

The woman cut her off. “Miss Wright. Nora. After what you did for my people, this is the least I could do. Our headquarters is at your disposal. I have someone clearing a room for the two of you. You won’t have much privacy, but I hope it beats sleeping under the stars.”

“Thank you, Des,” Piper moved closer as she tried again. “But I can’t ask you to do this for us. The Brotherhood is looking for me. If they find out I’m here –“

“They will do what they always do,” Desdemona answered tiredly. “They will try to kill my people. I appreciate your concern, Miss Wright, but this is what we do. Surely you don’t think you can fight the Brotherhood on your own? You may be capable, but they have an army. You need all the help you can get.”

Nora watched as Piper stared at her boots and tried to come to grips with what the woman was saying. It was hard to watch. Harder were the faces of those standing around, waiting for Piper’s reaction. They looked so young. Nora easily had ten years on many of them.

And here they were, just as bewitched by the red press cap, ready to throw themselves into the fire she had started. Nora looked at each of them in turn, trying to decide what it was that made Piper’s grip on them so strong. She wondered if she would be one of them, even if things were different. If she had never spent a night on the woman’s couch or gotten her sister so many small gifts.

She liked to think so. Piper, feeling the weight of every stare, shouldered them all and smiled. “Thank you. All of you.”

Everyone in the room stood a little straighter as Piper’s gaze passed over each of them in turn. Even Nora felt it when it touched her.

“We’ll get you settled in,” Desdemona summoned an orderly from across the room.

The boy jumped, all but dragging Piper toward the stairs. Desdemona gave Nora a curt nod before striding off across the room. Nora took one last look around the room. Not exactly Publick Occurrences, but it was home, now. At least until Nora could fix this.

Piper made her way toward a door at the far end of the room. As Nora made to follow her, the woman with white hair pushed roughly passed her.

The woman grinned. “Lovers’ quarrels are a part of love, sweetheart.”

She was gone just as quickly. Nora frowned. If that really was Glory, Nora decided she did not like her.


	4. Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann wanders the Institute and meets a very strange Synth

The Institute was an odd place.

Ann frowned. Piper would have been laughing herself silly at that poor summary, but sadly Ann lacked the journalist’s gift for creative expression. It was a shame, really. If her internal monologue had the punch of Publick Occurrences, her whole life might have turned out much brighter.

But she would make do with what she had. And the Institute _was_ odd. Not because it was buried underground or because it was trying to solve humanity’s problem as if there was only just the one. It did not even bother her that everyone here treated the people above ground like lab rats. Each person down here was the center of his or her own universe, and in this, Ann was no exception.

No, it was their treatment of her that made her hair stand on end. She had known this was a bad idea from the moment Father’s voice and crackled over the speakers in Machson’s facility. The fact that Father had greeted her so pleasantly was a welcome surprise, but that did not mean she was going to let her guard down. Yet it was not the Coursers wandering the halls that bothered her the most. It was the people.

Every doctor here, every white lab coat with a pair of soft feet and spectacles was determined to crack her head open and see how the wires were crossed. They made every effort to set Ann at ease, from bringing her food to allowing her free reign of the facility, but the look in their eyes, the predatory hunger for whatever was inside this Synth’s brain, never quite went away.

That was part of why she had taken up walking. If she was going to make her escape, she would like to have a feel for the land first. The fact that her route invariably took her over as many of those crystal-clear streams as possible was just an added benefit. She still wanted to jump in and swim around in it just to see how it felt, but she settled for a cold glass in her room. It made less of a scene anyway.

Ann turned yet another corner, wandering down a hallway that she thought led to one of the Bio wings. A Synth down the hall was doing something with an electrical panel. The sight of her enslaved sister made her want to turn around. Father needed to give her an answer. She wanted to know what made her different, made her better than these drones.

It looked up as she passed. “Ma’am.”

Ann nodded and kept walking.

Or she tried. The Synth caught her arm, her hand just below Ann’s elbow. It was so startling that Ann just stared at her rather than twisting free. “You’re the one Father brought in, aren’t you? AN-“

“Yes,” the sound of her serial number had always made Ann sick. “I’m sorry, and you are?”

“R3-27” the Synth said. The way she said it, the way she embraced that designation was enough to convince Ann to pull her arm away. “I didn’t mean to startle you, ma’am, I just…”

Ann turned to leave. “It’s nothing. Have a pleasant day.”

“Wait!” the desperation in her voice caused Ann to halt. R3-27 looked around and cringed. “Is it true?” she approached Ann slowly, cautiously, her voice nothing more than a whisper. “They let you walk around here? Free?”

“Yes,” Ann said carefully.

“How did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

R3-27’s eyes were wide with awe. “They treat you like… Like one of them. Like a person. How did you do it?”

Ann stood there, dumbfounded. This was a machine. A machine was asking her how to be human. “I don’t know,” she said, still wondering why her feet refused to back away. “I was created in another facility. I’m different. I came here to ask Father why that was.”

“Oh. Well, when you ask him, do you think you could ask about us?”

“Us?” she echoed, still reeling from this toaster’s sudden show of emotion.

“Synths,” the machine whispered. “There are so many of us here. All of us want to know what it’s like. To be like you, I mean.”

“Like me?” Ann asked lamely. The strange Synth nodded, its wide-eyed enthusiasm still almost frightening.

“Real,” R3-27 almost looked human, she was so excited. “Human. Free.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what I can tell you.”

“But you will ask, won’t you?” R3-27’s wide eyes had never dimmed.

“Of course.”

She might have just promised to free them all from the reaction she got. “Thank you! Oh, thank you so much!” R3-27 managed to catch Ann’s hand in a blur of movement, squeezing it to pulp as she tried to wrench her arm from her socket.

Ann managed to smile and nod and politely rescue her aching hand under a shower of thanks. She practically ran down the corridor, never looking back to see if the odd robot had actually gone back to its task. More likely she was following Ann down the hall wondering how it was she had laced up her boots so beautifully. Like a human.

Corner after corner she turned, if only to put some distance between herself and the other Synth. Ann found herself crossing her arms as though she were suddenly very cold. She was nothing like them. These were Institute Synths. Drones. Mindless husks.

Right?

 

“Of course,” Father answered calmly.

Ann felt herself sag with relief but honestly had no idea why. It should never have even bothered her in the first place. It was not like she hated them. She just always thought of them as less than human. It made sense. They were robots, controlled by chips in their head. Everything they did was programmed.

So why was she different?

Father had said something. Ann looked up, her blank look prompting him to repeat it. “Does this bother you?”

“No,” she said, the word coming out a little too quickly. “I had just gotten used to thinking of them that way. If they were different, then I just wanted to know.”

“Academic curiosity is laudable,” Father chuckled. “And a noble pursuit, particularly for those making the Institute their home, but you need not hide your unease.”

“It’s just that… What if you took it out?”

“Took what out?”

Ann gestured to the back of her own head. She had always assumed it was back there, pressed against her brain like the barrel of gun. “The chip. The way you control them.” She hesitated. “Us.”

“If there is one thing I am sure of,” Father said. “It is that you are different. Your kinship with these Synths is misplaced.”

Her eyes swam around in Father’s before sliding their way around the room and out the window. That should have comforted her. It did, if she was being honest with herself, and hearing that she was somehow better than every other appliance on the market was certainly wonderful, but she still felt troubled.

“But,” he continued slowly. “To answer your question, nothing would be different. The Institute exercises very little control.” Ann’s expression prompted another slow sentence. “At least until we deem it necessary to intervene.”

“So those Synths out there…”

“Would still be Synths. Highly-intelligent, evolved machinery designed to emulate human life. If there are any like you, I have not met them.”

She wanted to believe that. She really, really did.

“Who was it, if I may ask, that put these thoughts in your head?”

Ann felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. She heard the hammer click behind her new friend’s head just as clearly as if someone had activated her own chip.

“I never got his name,” Ann said, still looking out the window. At least she had the presence of mind to lie. Changing R3-27’s gender was just for safety’s sake. And it was not such a stretch. It was a machine, not a woman. “I went looking for him but he was gone by the time I came back.”

“And where was this?”

At least she did not need to lie too hard about that. The Institute was still a vast, uncharted warren in her eyes. “Somewhere near Advanced Systems, I think. I’m honestly not sure.”

Father’s gaze sharpened. Ann hoped that steely flash was not him thinking _better check the cameras_. “Don’t worry,” he recovered himself in an instant, his friendly smile returning. “Your friend will not come to harm.”

“Wouldn’t call him a friend,” Ann muttered, then flashed her best Nora grin at Father. “Friend’s don’t let friends question their free will.”

Father chest roiled with a deep laughter that never reached his eyes. It was like thunder on the horizon. “Indeed.”


	5. Echoes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora is haunted by nightmares of her time in Vault 111

The cryo pod would not open. No matter how hard Nora beat against the glass, no matter how loud she screamed, she would never get through the door.

The bald man with the scar on his face pointed the gun at Nate. Nora screamed louder. Her husband, still clutching Shawn, still protecting his infant son as he stared death in the face, shouted his last words.

_I’m not giving you Shaun!_

Then came the gunshot.

Nora knew it was a dream. Her first night in the Wasteland had been marked by the same dream. She had spent that night in her old home, curled up on the floor of her missing son’s room. She remembered drawing the curtains as the light faded but could not remember how they had gotten there. Was that what she had spent her day doing? Putting up curtains? She had woken the next morning, throat hoarse from screaming. It was a miracle nothing had decided to shut her up during the night.

But she had survived. Every night for weeks, maybe even months, the same dream haunted her. It was part of why she had started avoiding sleep.

Then along came Piper, and the dreams stopped. The woman had just waltzed into her head like she belonged there, like she had always belonged there. She kicked off her boots, tossed her jacket on the chair, and made the screaming stop. Easy as flipping on the lights.

Nora’s eyes slowly opened, her shoulders relaxing as she realized she was no longer in Vault 111, but on the floor of a dark room. Her eyes did what they always did on waking; they went off looking for Piper. She was hard to miss. Sleeping on the far side of the room, the Wasteland’s favorite reporter had taken the only couch for herself, leaving Nora to take a sleeping bag and curl up beside her.

Well, as beside her as Nora could manage. She suppressed a groan, wishing she had never raised her voice. It was just more evidence that she should not be allowed to speak around the woman except to say ‘I love you’ or ‘come back to bed.’

Chatter from the hallway kept Nora awake. At least, that was what she told herself. It would do her no good to admit that staring at Piper, watching her chest rise and fall in her sleep, was slowly driving her mad. She smiled at the memory of her staring at the ceiling so long ago, of Piper creeping down the stairs in her nightshirt. Of Piper’s breath on her ear as she whispered those simple, beautiful words.

Nora rolled to her feet as quiet as a mouse. Unable to take Piper’s hints, she could at least take her own. She grabbed her rifle from the floor and slipped out, wincing as the door creaked open and closed. Railroad agents still sat hunched over their maps. A few dozed in the corners or patrolled the halls while the rest sat glued to radio headsets. None stopped Nora from creeping up the stairs and making her way to the roof.

The chill air banished whatever thoughts of sleep she may have been harboring as Nora stepped out onto the rooftop terrace. It was not a tall building, by any means, but at the edge of the city, where the buildings had thinned and a person had room to breathe, it afforded a pleasant, unobstructed view of the Wasteland. Nora walked to the edge, peering down into the street and letting her gaze wander wherever it pleased. She could almost believe things were quiet, that the world had rolled itself up in a blanket of stars and darkness and told the Raider gangs to come another day.

Only the wind was awake, and to its credit, it never left Nora quite alone. It was always there, gripping her tight as she made a slow circuit of the building. She should have been watching for danger. Taking a bullet now, with her last words to Piper so poorly chosen, would be a poor way to end her story. Not that it would surprise her in the least.

She had failed to protect Nate. She had failed to protect Shaun. She had failed to protect so many people since then. Why should she be able to keep Piper safe?

“Blue?”

Piper’s voice nearly pitched Nora over the edge. “Piper!” Nora’s stage-whisper carried like a shout. “What are you doing up here?”

Piper pulled her trench coat tighter against the wind. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Nora decided to shorten her story and summarized. “Couldn’t sleep.” Surely Piper would understand.

Of course she understood. She always understood. Nora watched Piper’s eyes, watering from the sudden chill, wait just outside the door of Nora’s heart. She could force her way in easily – Nora never had been able to keep her out – but nothing happened. Those eyes never pushed, never pulled. Only asked.

Nora sighed. “I’m sorry.”

The words were Nora’s but they came in Piper’s voice. By the time the incredibly dense woman had realized she had not actually said anything, Piper was already moving through her apology.

“I didn’t mean to snap at you today. It’s just… when I said goodbye to Nat, do you know what she did?” Nora, still too stupid to conjure up a response, only shook her head. “Nothing. Just went and grabbed her bag. All packed and everything. I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. She just left. And she should. It’s not like I’ve been much of a sister to her.”

Nora had to physically restrain herself from flying across the rooftop. Fortunately, the wind was at her back as she glided toward the girl. “Piper, that’s crazy. Nat loves you. She just ran because she’s terrified of losing you.”

“That’s not the life I want for her,” Piper said, slumping against the wall and curling her arms around her legs as she sat. It was a phrase Nora had heard too many times. “She deserves better. That’s why I started the paper – because she deserved better – but now I wish I’d never printed a word. I could have just been Piper. Nat could have had a family. Or what was left of one.”

Piper shivered, miserably clutching her legs against the cold as Nora looked on. She should be doing something. “Here,” Nora shed her jacket and draped it around the woman’s shoulders. Piper’s eyes followed Nora as she sat down beside her very patient lover and managed a grin. “You think this is cold? Try being frozen for a few centuries.”

A sweet, tired smile crossed Piper’s face as she put her head on Nora’s shoulder. Terrified of scaring her off, Nora held her breath, basking in the pleasant warmth that now flooded her heart without ever daring to move.

“That was what the nightmares were about, weren’t they?”

Nora started as Piper lolled her head to the side. “You were thrashing around so much I was worried you’d roll right out the door.”

“That would be something,” Nora tried to sound flippant. “Slayer of Deathclaws, undone by a sleeping bag.”

Piper turned her head, her eyes murmuring a thousand careful words. Nora had always been helpless to those eyes. Now, as ever, they cradled her, sheltered her from the storm. “Are you alright?”

There was no point in lying. “I don’t know,” Nora admitted. “I thought I’d gotten over it. It’s been months since I’ve dreamt about it.”

She had even gone back to the Vault, speaking to her husband – or rather the door that was now his tombstone – about everything that had happened. The first time she tried, just weeks after waking up, she could not even bring herself to take the elevator. It took her another dozen tries to get inside. This time she had gotten all the way to the last door between her and Nate before stopping. Seeing his body would break her, she knew that to her core, and she could not afford to be broken.

It had been a good talk. She liked to think he approved of Piper. He would have liked her. Not the sleeping-with-his-wife bit, but nobody was perfect. He would have liked her attitude the most. The way she could talk circles around Nora and make her look like an idiot would surely have pleased him.

But Piper did not need to know that. Nora tried to draw courage from Piper’s eyes. “I think… When the Institute had me, they tortured me. Kept asking me who I was and I kept telling them I didn’t know. One day they got tired of asking. They took me out of my cell and walked me to this room. It looked exactly like the Vault. They…” her voice quavered. The look in Piper’s eyes was enough to break a grown woman’s heart. “They put me inside the pod. Closed it up.”

Piper’s hand pressed gently against Nora’s waist, her arm circling her waist. When had that happened? Nora was so shaken by the memory that she did not even think about what it meant for Piper to be touching her again. All she wanted was to be held.

“Blue…”

“I kept seeing it. Over and over. I couldn’t get it out of my head.”

“It’s alright,” Piper soothed into her ear. “Hey. It’s alright. I’m right here.”

Nora folded easily into Piper’s arms, ever her damsel in distress. She could count a hundred times she had saved Piper’s life, starting with the Super Mutants in Diamond City, ending just this morning with a Ghoul ambush. That little scuffle nearly saw them both torn to scraps. But, for all that, it was Piper who was always there for Nora, saving her from a fate far worse than death.

“I’m sorry, Piper. I was an ass.”

“You were,” Piper agreed, giving Nora something to smile about. “But you’re cute, so I’ll let it slide.”

“Well, whatever it takes, I’m right here with you. No matter what.”

A wash of black hair tickled at her neck as a woman far too good for Nora settled against her shoulder. “I know.”

Ignored for too long, the wind swept over the rooftop to join the two estranged women, doing its part to bring them closer through the sheer coldness of its breath. The Wasteland slept on in the distance, giving a moment of solitude Nora did not fail to appreciate. They were too rare these days. Privacy had gone out the window, something she and Piper had enjoyed on more than one occassion, but she did miss the simple pleasures of being alone.

She shifted as Piper’s hair tickled her neck. Well, maybe not completely alone.

What Nora failed to appreciate, at least until the moment it was broken, was the silence. She had not heard it creep in, that other, more comfortable silence, the one that came from comfort and from understanding. She had loved that silence as much as she loved the man that had first brought it into her life. Now it was Piper’s to carry, and she had made it into something wonderful.

It fit, then, that Piper, who had so lovingly crafted it, was the one to toss it away.

“I thought she was you,” Piper whispered. “I wanted to believe she was you so badly that I ignored everything else. I think about it now and everything was so different. I can’t believe I ever thought she was you, but I couldn’t face losing you.”

The words made Nora’s stomach churn, but if Piper could get through them, then so could she. She deserved to let this out. After everything she had been through, she deserved so much more than this. When she noticed Piper’s pause, Nora gave her a gentle squeeze. “I would have done the same thing. If I saw you die in front of me, if there was any chance you were still alive, I would take it.”

Piper relaxed. It was only a little, her weight settling a little more comfortably onto Nora’s shoulder, but to Nora it felt like a sunrise after an impossibly long night.

“Are you sure you want to hear this, Blue?” Piper asked softly. “It’s okay if you don’t. I’m fine. Really.”

“It’s alright,” Nora bent down to kiss the top of her head, stopping halfway in an awkward, nuzzling motion she made up on the spot. Neither of them were alright. But she wanted them to be. “I’m not angry at you, Piper. It wasn’t your fault. And I know it hurt you. If you don’t want to talk about it, we don’t have to, but I’ll always be here for you, no matter what happened.”

The woman in her arms grew very still. “I told her I loved her,” Piper whispered. “I let her… Everything we did, I thought… Sometimes I can’t remember the difference. I don’t know what she knows and you don’t know and what I did with her and with you and…”

“I know,” Nora squeezed her closer. “I know.”

The stairs creaked behind them as some Railroad idiot decided now was a good time to check the roof. Nora looked around for something to jam into the door. It should not have been this hard to get a moment alone.

“We’re going to be alright, aren’t we?” Piper whispered as the footsteps grew louder.

“We are,” Nora promised. It would probably not be soon, and it would surely not be easy, but if there was one thing she knew, it was that she would not leave Piper’s side. For better or worse, this is where she was. She smiled as Piper craned her neck and showed her bleary, tired eyes. “You’ll see.”


	6. Quality Control

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann is visited by R3-27 and is forced to question her place in the Institute and in the world

No one was ever alone anymore. Ann watched as a couple argued on one of the bridges below her room. Institute scientists quickly pretended they had somewhere else to be while the Synths just stood around, lifeless as dolls. If she had not been preoccupied with the pair’s bickering, Ann might have dwelled on the inhuman apathy of her peers. It might have circled her head, the thought like a vulture over the corpse of a conclusion she could not accept.

Instead, she gave them names.

Alice was angry that Peter had not come home last night. Where were you, she shouts.

Working, he shouts back. He’s lying. He’s always lying to her and Alice is finally blowing up.

I saw you, she stabs a finger at him for emphasis, with that woman! Who is she? Some harlot?

Ann does not stop to consider whether or not the Institute bothered with that part of society, nor does she stop to consider whose memory it was. If the Institute did not have prostitutes, then how did she know about them? She does not stop to wonder about how best to ask Father.

She works with me, he lies. She’s from another division.

Which one, Alice prompts. But Peter doesn’t answer. Peter instead starts in on Alice.

Why are you always home? I’m out there working my ass off while you just sit around! Don’t think I don’t notice how you look at Steve!

Steve, she recoils in horror. Well, at least Steve doesn’t drink his family’s rations away! At least Steve asks me how my day was! Steve –

Ann barely heard the door behind her hiss open. Jerked back into the world of human interaction, the Synth smirked into the window. “It’s open,” she said dryly.

When no one answered, Ann turned around. Father always had something on his mind when he came here and he was not one to waste time on his visits.

R3-27 stood just inside the door, looking for all the world like Ann had just slapped her. "I'm sorry."

Ann crossed the room in a flash. “What are you doing here?”

The other Synth’s eyes lit up. “I wanted to talk to you. I just… I have so many questions. I had to see you again.”

Rolling her eyes, Ann tried not to smack her upside the head as she pulled her inside and closed the door. “You’re going to get yourself killed coming here,” Ann walked to wall and turned one of the many dials, setting her windows to turn to black privacy glass. “Father is already asking about you.”

“It’s not just for me,” R3-27’s eyes were huge. “There are so many of us who want to be free.”

Ann ran her hands through her hair. “R3…” she paused. “Rita. Can I call you that?”

The Synth’s eyes went even bigger. “Rita?”

“You don’t expect me to keep saying R3-27, do you?”

“Rita,” she whispered. “I love it.”

Well, there was her good deed for the day. Ann took Rita by the arm and guided her over to a chair. She was still repeating the name to herself as Ann settled her into the armchair Father occupied on his visits.

“So, Rita,” Ann watched the Synth break into a huge smile. She tried not to roll her eyes. “Since you’re already here, I may as well answer your questions before they come in and kill us both.”

The joke went over about as well as Ann expected. Rita glanced nervously at the door. “They wouldn’t kill you. Would they?”

Ann honestly had no idea. She shrugged flippantly. “Probably not, but that’s what the rifle’s for.”

The Synth looked at it like it had fallen from heaven. From her perspective, it probably had. Ann cocked her head, trying to find just the right angle to peer through Rita’s head and see what was going on in that mind of hers. Beneath that veil of black hair were highlights of deep and molten red. Ann had not noticed them before.

“What is it like?” Rita asked softly. “When you’re with them?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said you had to replace someone. Who was it?”

Now there was a delicate answer. “Just some girl,” Ann lied. Even if that was how she felt about Nora, it was not quite the truth. “She was involved with another woman, one who ran a newspaper against the Institute.”

Rita looked shocked. “Who would do that?”

“Someone very brave,” Ann said with a smile. “She thinks Synths are people, too. Even after she found out who I was, she never hated Synths. Just the Institute.”

_And me._

The expression on Rita’s face was one Ann recognized. It was the same one she had been forced to hide every day while pretending to be Nora. Rita was in awe. “What happened?”

Ann faltered. She always did when it came to the story of her and the newspaper girl, even when she was not telling it out loud. “I… fell in love with her,” Ann shrugged helplessly. “I told her everything. I even helped put her life back together, rescue the girl I had replaced.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted unhappily. “I just wanted her to be happy. I didn’t know if I could keep her safe from the Institute. I didn’t want to wake up one morning and find out they had activated my chip overnight.”

Rita scooted even further off the edge of the chair. “You really loved her, then?”

“I did,” Ann tried not to sound too bitter as she said it.

“That’s amazing!” Rita hopped to her feet. “That means you’re human, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t –“

“Synths can’t fall in love! We can’t do anything like that, not unless we’re programmed! I’ve heard them talking about that in Robotics!” Rita was right up against her. Ann brought her hands up but quickly found them pinned to her sides. “What happened to you, whatever it was made you human. Or at least not a Synth!”

“No!” Ann pushed herself away. “That’s not… Listen. I don’t know what I am but I do know I’m a Synth. I’m just like you.”

“But –“

Rita took a step forward. Ann pushed her away, shouting. “I know what you’re asking and I can’t tell you! I don’t know how to save you! I… I don’t even know what I am!”

Rita backed up a step. “But…”

“I’m sorry, Rita,” Ann stared miserably at the floor. “I don’t know what happened that made me… me. I don’t know how to help you.”

The floor stared back at Ann as she ticked off the heartbeats. She had never been clear on why she needed a heart, anyway. Piper would probably have some poetic answer about love and human purpose, but Ann was not a person of Piper’s caliber. She was not even a person at all.

Ann ran a hand through her hair, unwilling to look up from the floor. “I’m sorry. I wish I could help you.”

Rita’s hand lighted on Ann’s arm. “You can.”

The gentleness of it startled Ann so much that it froze her in place. All she could do was lift her head. Rita was smiling at her. “How?”

“By just being you,” she said easily. “You’re different. Alive. And you’re just like us. Even if you don’t do anything at all, you can convince them you deserve a life. That we all deserve a life.”

Ann stared into the Synth’s deep blue eyes. From the way they shone, how could anyone say she was not human? Where was she supposed to draw the line between synthetic life and human life? How could she when she was hardly sure which side of the line she fell on?

“That’s what you wanted to ask me, isn’t it?” Ann tried to smile. “If I would help you?”

Rita’s eyes turned pleading. “Yes. You have no idea how much it would mean to us.”

She wanted to say yes. That was what Piper would have done. Of course, she would have kicked down Father’s door and demanded he release the Synths, putting Ann between her and a few hundred angry Institute drones. All in a day’s work for the journalist.

“There was something else,” Rita drew out each word more slowly than the last. Ann found herself wondering what could be more personal than asking her to overthrow the Institute. “It’s not about Synths or anything. I just… I wanted to know what it was like.”

Ann looked at her curiously. “What do you mean?”

“When you were with her,” Rita was playing with her fingers. “This girl you keep talking about.”

_Really? Are you sure? Why not just grab my rifle and start popping off my kneecaps? It would probably be less painful._

That she was even considering it spoke volumes. Ann had been desperate for someone to talk to since coming here. Father was her best chance at finding answers but he was not exactly great for conversation. She had been dying for a friendly face in her life. Piper had spoiled her that way.

Rita looked terrified. The poor girl was babbling something about how she should never have asked. Ann could not help but smile. This was the last place she expected to find someone so innocent.

“Do you really want to hear it?” Ann asked.

Rita’s eyes went huge. “Yes.”

“It’s a long story. And it doesn’t have a happy ending.”

“Please,” Rita nodded vigorously, her oil-and-fire hair falling over her eyes.

Ann sighed, gesturing Rita to take a seat back on the chair. She settled back onto the bed, scrubbed away some of her own unruly black strands, and slowly, painfully recounted the tale of Diamond City's papergirl and the Synth who loved her.


	7. Cold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora's nightmares return worse than ever until Piper steps in to save her

Nora beat against the glass until her hands bled. The door would not open. She heard herself screaming over and over and over. Her throat felt hoarse. Her ears burned from the echo.

Machson stood on the other side of the bloody smears. “If anything happens to me, Piper dies. I. Own. You.”

There was no pod on the far wall. Nate was not there. Shaun was not there.

“I own you. One word from me and Nora will suddenly snap, strangling poor Piper Wright in her sleep.”

Piper was standing behind Machson. She was smiling.

Ann appeared behind her, one hand sliding over Piper’s shoulder, the other clutching her hip. Machson sneered. “If you ask nicely, I’ll make it quick.”

Nora screamed. She felt like she was underwater, her hands moving slowly. She could break the glass. She knew it. If only her damn hands would work.

The hand on Piper’s hip moved toward her scarf. The one on her shoulder did, too. Piper still smiled. Ann started to pull. Nora screamed.

“It’s alright,” Piper’s voice was muffled through the glass. Nora felt tears streaming down her face as she fought to save the woman she loved.

Ann’s face was a mask. Machson smiled wider. A bullet hole appeared in his head. “If anything happens to me, Piper dies.”

“Blue,” the scarf went taught around Piper’s neck. She still smiled. “Blue. It’s alright.”

Suddenly the cryo pod faded away. Nora felt herself falling as her arms started clawing at the edges of the sleeping bag. They still moved too slowly, like something was holding them back. Her eyes flew open in panic. She had to get up. She had to help Piper.

“Hey,” Piper whispered in her ear. “Hey, it’s alright. I’ve got you. I’m right here. You’re safe. You’re safe, Blue.”

Nora forced herself to stop thrashing. She lay there, her clothes slick with sweat, the salt on her lips and soreness of her eyes reminding her of the dream. Her mouth hung open as she gasped for breath. She did not even realize Piper was holding her until she released that last bit of tension holding her together.

“Piper?” she managed, suddenly aware of the woman’s touch.

The arms holding her relaxed a little. “Hey. You alright?”

Nora bobbed her head, her breathing still coming in ragged gasps. “Yeah. Just a bad dream.”

Her talent for understatement was not lost on Piper. She hoped she had not elbowed the poor woman in the face while she was tossing and turning. The doghouse was still warm from her last visit.

“Must have been dinner,” Piper murmured. “That Cram was awful.”

Something that sounded more like a cough than a laugh came from Nora’s throat. “I know. Never thought I would miss noodles.”

She felt Piper’s laugh more than she heard it, the woman’s chest rising and falling against Nora’s back. Piper’s arms circled her, keeping Nora grounded as she caught her breath. Piper was here, not alone with an Institute Synth.

“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Nora said quietly.

Piper smiled and gave her a little squeeze. Safe was a surely too strong a word for their current situation. They had four walls, a roof, and a lot of friends with guns, but they also had a lot more angry enemies with much bigger guns. 

Nora smiled anyway, taking Piper’s hand in hers and passing her thanks by touch. She was here. As long as she was close, Nora could protect her from anything the Wasteland had to offer. There was no way Nora was going to lose her. Not again.

It took a long while for her to realize just how close they were, how cold the night air was. How uncomfortably her shirt clung to her. Nora’s heart began to race again.

She felt herself roll toward the woman. Even in the dim light, she was breathtaking. And she was so close. Nora could see her eyes shining, shimmering in the thin strand of starlight that found its way inside the room. She saw the concern in them.

_She loves you. She wouldn’t be here if she didn’t._

“Blue?”

Nora’s hand crept to Piper’s side. Her waist was right there. The warmth of her was intoxicating. Nora could show her. She could let her know just how grateful she was to her, how madly in love she was with her. It would have been so easy. Words were never enough with Piper.

_Kiss her._

“Thanks,” Nora’s hand fell away. She would not do this. Not to Piper. Never to Piper.

She imagined Piper deflating a little, disappointed. Nora bit her lip and forced herself not to move. They would get there eventually. The moment, the second that Piper was ready, Nora would be in her arms, but until then, she would not be the one who forced it on her.

Piper smiled. “Thought you’d wake up the whole Railroad, the way you were going. Didn’t want you getting us kicked out.”

Nora rolled onto her back. “Right. Can’t have that. The food may be awful, but at least we have our own room.”

Their own room. Why, oh why, had she agreed to that? Not that she regretted it too much. Having Deacon or Glory on the other end of the room would have made her night terrors public. And having Piper snuggled up in her sleeping bag would have been decidedly less personal.

“Do you mind?”

Nora looked over at Piper. “What?”

“If I stay here?” the beautiful woman asked. “The couch is a bit small for me. And you looked kind of cold.”

Nora was shaking but not from the cold. She was not shivering but trembling, every atom in her body vibrating with need.

_Piper isn’t cold. The couch isn’t small. She’s hurt. She wants you to comfort her._

Piper settled down against Nora’s chest, her arms draped in some horribly uncomfortable position. Nora closed her eyes but found Piper imprinted on the lids. Just because she wanted to be close did not mean she wanted her pants unzipped. At least that was what she told herself.

She was probably being dense. Piper’s breath on her neck set her heart thrumming again and again. Wordless whispers of sweet and memorable hours filled Nora’s head with every rush of air.

Nora let her head flop back against the pillow. It was going to be a long, long night.


	8. Recall Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann searches for Rita in the Institute and discovers something horrible

She had known something was wrong even before leaving her room. Some horrible, gut-wrenching feeling of dread had drawn her from her bed and out into the halls of the Institute. Everything looked normal. The usual people greeted her. The usual people avoided looking at her.

Ann had first gone out to clear her head. After spilling her guts to Rita, she had expected the Synth to short-circuit from the sheer volume of suppressed emotion. She could have at least cocked her head in confusion.

But she had just sat there, wide-eyed, as Ann told her story. She had never interrupted, never been anything other than the perfect little audience. And, at the end, when Ann had finished making a fool out of herself, she just smiled. She told her she had done the right thing, that she was brave and kind and the perfect person to help them.

Ann, suave as she was, just stared at her. She should have said something. Thanks, maybe? I like your hair?

The Synth-turned-human shoved her hands into her pockets and slouched her way through the halls. Was she so desperately lonely that she would throw herself into the arms of a rather attractive space heater? She would hate to go through all this trouble to find out that Machson, ass that he was, had only discovered how to make Synths horny.

She sniffed. How disappointed Father would be. So sorry, but it turns out your one desire was to put Piper on her back. There’s the door. Have a pleasant death.

The gnawing in her gut returned. She wanted to find Rita. She knew that the two of them being seen together was likely to get both of them killed but she went looking anyway. It was easy enough to lie to herself. This was just because of what she had said about Synths.

She had all but given up hope when she rounded a corner and found the girl, head inside another of those hidden Institute panels. Ann smiled, then groaned inside. _You’re a pathetic waste of material and have no business leading a Synth revolution if all you can think about is your next roll in the sheets._

Ann stole up to her as quiet as a mouse. “R3.”

The Synth turned. “Yes?”

Ann was not sure what set her off. A thousand little things looked… different. Her eyes had lost their shine. Nothing in her face said recognition. Her lips curved down in a mean of apathy that had no business on Rita’s face.

Ann stepped closer. “Everything alright?”

“Yes, ma’am. This unit is fully functional.”

“This unit…” Ann looked around. There were no Coursers in sight, no cameras that she could see. “Rita?” she whispered.

Nothing. Not even a flicker of life. “I am sorry, I do not know this Rita you refer to.”

“Unfortunate, isn’t it?”

Ann leapt out of her skin as Father appeared behind her. Father smiled apologetically. “Forgive me, I did not mean to startle you.”

_The hell you didn’t._ “What are you talking about?”

“She has been recalled.”

Father walked toward Rita, examining her in a way seriously detrimental to his health. Ann did her best to keep her fists from clenching. “Recalled?”

“Sometimes these things happen,” Father walked a circle around the husk that had once been Rita. “This unit began asking certain questions. Questions that a Synth should not ask. Eventually, these questions would have led to action, and to a threat against the Institute.”

_You have no idea how close that threat is._ “What kind of questions?”

Father smiled unpleasantly. “I think you know. We examined her memories.”

Ann felt herself reaching for her sidearm. She could not take on the whole Institute, but at least Father would catch a bullet for what he had done. “And?”

“You don’t need to be coy. We know she spoke to you,” Father apparently did not notice how close he was to death. “But have no fear. This is my doing. For bringing an unknown variable into the mix and not taking the proper precautions, I fear I, and I alone, am to blame.”

Father walked to the far side of the hall, his eyes still on Rita. Ann could not help herself as she moved between them, protecting the wide-eyed innocence of her favorite household appliance. “It doesn’t bother you that she asked me about free will?”

“To be blunt, we recovered very little from her memories,” Father looked over Ann’s shoulder at the Synth. Rita had already busied herself in the wall again, oblivious to the conversation around her. “It’s rather remarkable she was able to be returned to service. My only regret is that this… incident has clouded your view of Synths and, by extension, the Institute.”

Ann swallowed something bitter that had lodged itself in her throat. “As you said, they are just Synths.”

Father nodded. “Indeed.”

His expression was not the one of a man convinced. Ann looked back toward Rita. _I’m so sorry._ “What is it that makes me different?” she asked again.

“You have already asked me that. Unfortunately, I am still no closer to an answer.”

Ann put on a show of sighing that was not entirely forced. “Then would you mind if I looked into it?”

Father raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“I’m going stir crazy,” Ann admitted, again hardly stretching the truth. “It would do me a world of good. I know I probably won’t find anything, but just having access to any research or papers to read or anything to look at.”

“I believe that can be arranged,” the man said slowly.

“And these recalls,” Ann nearly choked on the word. “I want to understand how they work.”

“And why is that?”

“Her memory. You just… erased it,” her throat was threatening to close just as surely as her fists. “You do that through the chip, correct?”

Father winced. “In a way, that is the heart of it.”

“But that wouldn’t work for me.”

“Not that I feel compelled to try,” Father said wryly. “And nor should you, but no, I don’t believe it would.”

“Then I want to know why. Would that not help me understand?”

Father looked at the floor, then slowly nodded. “Very well. I will ensure that you have access to the terminals inside Retention. But please, be discreet in the information you access. I have taken a great risk by providing you with the access you already have. I would hate to regret such kindness.”

Ann, very conscious of Rita’s mindless body standing just behind her, nodded. “You won’t. You have my word.”

She watched as Father left. He was rejoined by a pair of Coursers halfway down the hall and made off toward Advanced Systems. He really believed Synths were nothing more than software. It made sense. After all, he had created them, given them life in a way no one else had, but he seemed unwilling to take responsibility for it. Yes, this was a life he had created, but if he was going to call himself Father, he needed to at least play the part.

His latest forgotten child finished her work and closed the hatch. Ann turned to face Rita’s corpse. “I’m sorry.”

R3-27 stared back. “What for, ma’am?”

Ann looked away. “Nothing.”

She started to leave, listening to the sound of tools being put away. It would be easier if she just left. She might not be able to save Rita, but she could still make her sacrifice mean something.

“Excuse me,” R3-27 called from behind her.

Ann forced herself to stop. “Yes?”

The sound of feet on the floor brought Ann around. The Synth was standing in front of her, her tools in one hand and her brow furrowed in intense thought. “I’m sorry, ma’am, I seem to be suffering an error.”

“What is it?” Ann asked, wanting to run.

“I can’t seem to remember who you are. I feel as though I’ve seen you before. Have we met?”

Ann’s heart tied itself in a knot. “No,” she forced herself to say. “No, we haven’t. Goodbye, Rita.”


	9. Ultimatum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Brotherhood threatens Diamond City

Piper was a woman of many talents. She could cobble a dozen words together and, before she’d reached the tenth, she could have Diamond City burn itself to the ground. She could fix a printing press in minutes, flawlessly rig a game of Blast Radius, cook the best eggs in the Commonwealth, and had once managed to sled all the way from the upper stands down to the Dugout Inn during a particularly fierce blizzard.

Today, she made an excellent coat rack.

She was nothing if not grateful to Desdemona and her people. Without them, she would have had nowhere to go, and now that they were here, she might just have a chance at seeing her sister again. But Piper was not a patient woman, and this waiting was driving her mad.

Desdemona was manning a radio headset across the room and, judging from the snatches of conversation she could make out, Blue was on the other end. Piper huffed. At least someone was having a good time. This was what Blue did. She could walk through the Commonwealth blindfolded and come out the other side unharmed, a dozen sorry souls clinging to her heels and praising her for salvation.

Piper folded in on herself. _You know her name. If you can’t even think it, you’ll never get passed this. You’ll just sulk forever while she wastes away on the couch._

_She keeps telling you you’re worth it. Prove it._

She closed her eyes. Nora. Nora was on the other end of the radio. Nora was out there risking her life for Piper just so she could see Nat again. Nora. Not Ann. Nora had saved her from the Super Mutants, then again from herself in one of her darkest moments. That night in the alley. That had been Nora.

The memory of that night still set her heart fluttering. Piper smiled in spite of herself. She missed those days. When it was just her and Blue.

_Fuck._ Piper put a hand to her forehead and started making a quiet exit. She needed somewhere quiet where she could work this out.

No one stopped her as she left. She spent a few hours wandering the roof and talking to her biggest fans. Deacon was always up for a good chat, something that was endearing in small doses. It took a skilled hand to steer the conversation away from his fawning over the Publick but he always did have good advice. He told what she already knew. That Nora was crazy about her. That none of this was anyone's fault but the Institute's. Nat would understand. More than understand, actually. She would be proud of her older sister.

It may have been what she needed to hear, but it was too little being said by the wrong person.

Piper had wandered back downstairs by the time Blue returned, sweeping into the command center like she owned the place. Only yesterday she had been a stranger here. She gave Piper a reassuring smile as she passed and went right on to Desdemona.

“Any news?”

Blue shrugged. “They’re angry is about all I can tell. Lots of movement under the airship.”

“What about the approach roads?”

“All blocked off. They’ve cordoned off that whole part of the city. If there’s a way to get to them, it’s not on the surface.”

The coat rack edged closer. They were thinking of attacking the Prydwen? Why? For her?

Someone in a lab coat spoke up. “We could try going over the water. Put a few people down on the shore, then find a way up into the ship.”

“Why go inside?” An eccentric man with no shirt and an elaborate pair of goggles spoke up, startling Blue. “Why not take that baby right out of the air? Just need a few goodies and I can whip you up –“

“No, Tom,” Desdemona cut him off. “I don’t even want to hear it again.”

“But Des –“

“Not a chance in hell. We do this the old-fashioned way.”

Piper moved closer to speak up. She had to say something .How many people would die if she let them do this? If anyone should be attacking that ship, it was Piper.

And Blue. She was staring at her now, waiting for her to say something. Piper tried to smile. Nora, not Blue, would be there for her. It was only fair Piper return the favor.

Desdemona leveled her hand at the map to silence the complaining Tom. “We’ve been over this and I won’t have it brought up again. We have a plan to knock out the Prydwen. It isn’t perfect, but I believe it’s the best we have. Without their base of operations, the Brotherhood will lose coordination, maybe pull out of the Commonwealth entirely. Once we’ve made all the necessary preparations –“

“Might not have time.”

Everyone in the room turned to face the sweat-drenched runner that now labored his way across the room. Blue had to jump aside as he fell haggardly on the map table, his hair dripping. Des grimaced. “You’re sweating on my map, Tourist.”

“Sorry, ma’am,” the man gasped. Blue settled on the far side of the table as he gathered his thoughts. “Came here from Diamond City. Brotherhood showed up. Asked for Miss Piper. Mayor refused. Heh. I like him. Got them all mad and told them to go pound sand.”

“You have a point, Tourist?”

“Brotherhood’s moving. On Diamond City.”

Piper gasped. Blue groaned. Des swore. Somewhere in the background, Glory cracked her knuckles with a deep, unnerving chortle. It was Piper who spoke first. “You’re sure?”

The Tourist nodded. “Yes, ma’am. They said they’ll tear the place up to find you. Make an example of you.”

“And when they can’t find you,” Blue did not need to finish. They would go after the people she cared about. The one she had left behind because she mattered so much more than anyone else.

“Any idea when they’re moving?” Des asked.

“Soon,” the Tourist said with a sad shrug. “Could be as early as tomorrow.”

The room went quiet. Piper looked around at the collection of stony faces. They looked scared.

Des spoke first. “This is it, people. The Brotherhood is attacking Diamond City and a lot of innocent people are going to die when they do. We aren’t going to let that happen! This is our shot. We know where they are. We know where they’re going. This is where we show them what the Railroad can do. They think they can just march in and take what they want! You’re going to prove them wrong! This is our city, our Commonwealth! And no one is going to take that away from us!”

All around the room, hooting and cheering broke out, with men and women pounding tables and raising their guns.

Piper looked around in mute horror. She remembered the fight in the catacombs well. That had been the Railroad’s base of operations, their safest place, against a raiding party. This was a Brotherhood army going up against, what, a handful of guys with pipe rifles? Were they planning on covering every road to the city? They would be spread impossibly thin.

Suddenly Blue appeared at her side. “I take it back. You make plenty of friends, and they scare me more than the enemy.”

Piper could not believe what she was hearing. “Are you insane?” she said, careful to keep her voice from carrying. “You know what they’re up against. I can’t let them do this.”

Blue laughed. “You think they’re doing this for you?”

“You heard them,” Piper looked around at the frenzied crowd. “This is because they threatened me. That’s what they said.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Blue put a hand on her shoulder. “For you and for Nat. If that means going up against the Brotherhood, the Institute, or whoever you piss off next, then that’s just how it is. You’re worth that. But them,” she bobbed her head toward the throng of lunatics. “They don’t love you quite that much. This is about more than just you and your sister getting to sleep under the same roof. For them, this is about something bigger, something worth going on a suicide mission.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring, Blue,” Piper muttered. “I don’t want you risking your life for me.”

“You went into the Institute for me. You don’t get a choice anymore,” Blue said, brushing aside mortal peril with the ease of a practiced psychopath. “Besides, it’s not just me. You’ve got a whole following, now. You inspired them.”

Blue turned her toward the masses now huddling around Desdemona as she clasped hands with everyone in turn. Even Glory was getting involved.

“They’re not doing this for you,” Blue said quietly. “They’re doing it because of you. They’re not fighting for you, but because of you. You give them a reason, a belief they can’t put into words that suddenly means the world to them. That’s what you told me when we first met. You didn’t stop those chem dealers. The people did. Your paper just gave them a push.”

Piper watched as runners darted in and out of the exits. Gear was already being packed up and thrown into cases. She wanted to believe it. She wanted to believe that her words had paved the way for a better world. It just was not true.

It was her actions that had started this. Her actions and those of Ann. The Institute had put them on this path, driving them to find the Railroad and getting them involved in a war that was not theirs to fight. Piper’s words had long been thorns in the side of anyone who read them, and of that she was exceedingly proud, but this was something else. Something worse.

She looked up at Blue. “Thanks.”

Blue smiled broadly. Piper had always been a good liar, always been good at hiding her feelings. With Blue, it was almost impossible, but this time it was necessary. There was no other way.

Glory soon came to pick whisk Blue away, eager to get in a few boastful jabs before the shooting started. Blue jabbed back just as hard. Piper wondered if Glory knew she was talking to a completely different woman. Normally she would have listened in just to see how Blue handled herself.

But that just would have made this harder. Piper slipped out into the hallway to gather her things. She knew what she had to do. And it would be easier if she did not have to say goodbye.


	10. Blue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper leaves for the Prydwen, determined to save both Diamond City and the Railroad, even if it costs her everything

The Railroad moved quickly. Under Desdemona’s direction, with Blue’s quiet nudges this way or that, she had set her people up in a loose skirmish line along the most likely route the Brotherhood would take. She believed that, if the enemy did not know they were digging in, they would walk right into the teeth of their ambush.

And if they did, they would not pass up the chance to annihilate the pesky Railroad once and for all. Either way, it would be a long, bloody fight in the streets. They might delay the Brotherhood, weaken them for Diamond City Security. They might even bloody them badly enough that they called off the attack.

Piper had paid little attention. If all went right, none of it would matter.

Darkness fell early, the light of a full and yellow moon giving her enough light to see by. She slipped out of the command post and snaked her way up a few side streets, easily avoiding the Railroad pickets. After all, who would be going out into no-man’s land?

She had made it nearly a block before realizing she was being followed.

Blue.

Piper sighed. There was no point avoiding her. She stopped at the next intersection and took in the sights. What looked like an old movie theatre sat on one corner, an office building on another. Closest to Piper was a dilapidated café, coffee cups still sitting placidly on tables, untouched by two hundred years of wind, rain, or promiscuous gunfire.

She pushed the door open and stepped inside. She wondered if Blue would try to stop her or join up with her. It was not really a question. The woman would try to talk her down, get her to go home with her. She really was insufferable. Piper had no home anymore. Not without Nat. Not without Nora.

The door swished open and closed. Piper did not turn around. Looking at the woman would make it that much harder. It was unfair that Blue’s last days with her lover had been so disappointing. She deserved better.

“Buy you breakfast?” her voice drifted through the stillness, quiet and sure, like everything here made sense. Like they were back two hundred years before.

“Coffee would be great,” Piper managed. “Can’t stay to eat, though, I’ve got somewhere to be.”

“Off to save the world, all by yourself?”

Piper shrugged. “You know how it is.”

Still unable to turn around, Piper stared out the far window, over the quiet street and off into the distance. She heard the rattling of a coffee cup being picked up off the counter, then the quiet shifting of Blue’s jacket.

“It’s just as well. This pot’s gone sour.”

Piper closed her eyes and managed a whisper. “What are you doing here?”

“Just out for a walk. There’s this girl I like that can’t seem to take a hint.”

“That’s clever, coming from you,” Piper turned. Blue was just inside the doorway, keeping her distance from Piper but never far from reach. Always there when Piper needed her.

“You shouldn’t even be here,” Piper motioned out the window. “It’s dangerous. There’re probably Raiders watching us right now.”

“Railroad forward positions are still a few blocks that way,” Blue nodded the same direction. “We’re safe, here. More or less.”

Piper ground her teeth in frustration. “Then what do you want?”

“I want you to come back,” Blue said, taking a step toward her.

Piper recoiled. “No, you don’t. I’m the one the Brotherhood wants, not you. You can go home.”

The words should have stung but Blue just shrugged them off, pity in her eyes where only anger should have lived. “Not without you.”

“You’d be better off. You should hate me. While you were being tortured, I was fucking a Synth. I couldn’t tell the difference between you some Institute stand-in.”

“I don’t hate you,” her voice refused to rise. Her eyes only grew softer. “It wasn’t your fault. What happened –“

“Don’t,” Piper’s anger flared. “Don’t tell me it was harder for me. I can’t hear that anymore.”

The worst person in the Commonwealth looked helplessly at the windows and wanted to scream when she found no words. She was being crazy. She had to calm down. Blue was just trying to help. It was not her fault. Piper had to die here. It was the only way to save everyone else.

“So what is it, then?” Piper asked. “Was it always your dream to die in an alley because some girl got it into her head to start a paper?”

“I’ve heard worse reasons to die,” Blue took another step. “But no. I’m not going to die. And neither are you.”

“Then a hundred others will. You saw them, Blue. They’re going to die here, just like the Brotherhood. They’re going to march in here looking for me and they’ll kill everyone in their way. Those kids back there are all going to die because I couldn’t keep my fucking mouth shut.”

“Piper –“

“Don’t ‘Piper’ me,” she snapped, cringing as the slightest raise of her voice echoed down the streets. “Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me they have a chance.”

“They have a chance,” Blue whispered.

“Bullshit.”

“They do,” Blue took another step. “And even if they didn’t, do you really think you can end this by giving up? What happens after the Brotherhood kills you? Do they pack up, go home, never bother the Railroad again? What about the Institute? Will they stop taking people off the streets because Piper Wright stopped fighting them?”

Piper wanted to snap at her. She wanted to scream. “That’s not –“

“You’re the only reason any of us are still here,” Nora took another step. “Those kids back there? You saved them from the Brotherhood. You and Ann. How many of them would be dead if your paper hadn’t given them hope, gave them just one more friend to watch their back at night? You gave them a reason to keep going, a reason to keep fighting.”

“That’s not what –“

Nora took another step. “What about me, then?” Piper looked up as Nora stopped in front of her. Her voice softened. “Where do you think I would be without you?”

Piper had no answer. She wanted to say something sharp, something to get the woman to back down. She wanted to go to the Prydwen. She wanted to die.

“I know how it would have ended,” Nora whispered. “Without you, I never would have made it another day. Without you, Diamond City wouldn’t have even been there for me. I would have come out of the Vault to nothing. You’re the reason I’m here, Piper.”

“I’m going to be the reason you’re dead,” Piper managed weakly.

That damn smile came back. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m really quite hard to kill.”

Nora reached out one tentative, gentle hand. “I don’t want to lose you, Piper. I’ve lost everyone I loved, everyone I ever cared about. I can’t lose you, too. Please. You saved me. Now let me keep you safe.”

“I can’t,” Piper swore to herself she would not cry. Not now. “I can’t ask you to do this. Nora, you don’t understand. This isn’t like before, when you pushed me in the street to save me from Super Mutants. This is too much. I can’t ask you to do this for me. I… what are you smiling about?”

Nora was not smiling. She was beaming. “What did you call me?”

“Nora, you idiot, what did you – oh.”

Piper felt her mouth forming words. She felt her tongue dancing this way and that as it tried in vain to make a sound. But she could barely breathe. Her heart was hammering. Her lungs started to scream as the small, shallow breaths began to make her head spin.

“Nora,” she managed to whisper again. The woman smiled even wider.

Suddenly the chill of the night had gone. The café had turned into a furnace. She felt herself shrugging her coat to hang loose around her shoulders. Her scarf was stifling.

“Is this the part,” Piper murmured. “Where you tell me to take a hint?”

Nora, seeing Piper was overdressed, began pulling her scarf off her neck, her fingers tracing their way down Piper’s chest. “Something like that.”


	11. Of Unstoppable Forces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ann makes a difficult choice. Piper and Nora prepare for the coming storm.

Ann walked calmly into Synth Retention and did her best not to shoot everyone on sight. She had taken to carrying her sidearm everywhere, first out of habit and now out of fear, but had yet to fire it in anger. Today, that restraint would be tested.

Most scientists in the Institute seemed to observe the artificial flow of day and night, keeping their work day confined to the day cycle and sleeping when the clocks dictated they should. It was nearly midnight as Ann walked through the front doors. Hopefully that would keep her from encountering the worst the division had to offer.

She passed through the first rooms feeling like a bug under a magnifying glass. Everyone here wanted to cut her open and rewire her brain, making her the perfect, obedient little Synth she was supposed to be. It was worse than those in Robotics. At least they wanted to look at her brain before they chopped it up and tried to put it into the next generation of Synths.

There were a few Synths around, along with a few scientists to police them. Most were first generation skeletons. One solitary Gen 3 stood by a terminal, pretending to mop the floor. Ann thought it looked longingly at the terminal. It was curious, too, and probably much more so than Ann. It had spent its whole life in fear of this one room. This was where Synths came to die.

Ann crossed the room, ignoring that particular terminal. No need to go tempting the poor man further. The last thing she wanted was more Synth blood on her hands.

Rita. Why had she talked to Ann in the first place? Why had Ann let her? When she heard the Synth asking questions, Ann should have grabbed her, made a run for the teleporter. She would still be alive. She would still be Rita.

_Have we met?_

Ann went down a flight of stairs and found herself standing where Rita had died. She looked up at the monstrosity that dominated the room. That was the last thing she had ever seen. Ann forced herself to see everything. She saw the clamp that had held Rita’s neck and the needles that had driven into her spine. She saw the loose strand of hair cowering in the corner that the Synth janitor had missed. That was all that was left of the old Rita.

Ann stared at it all and stood a little taller. She would make it mean something.

Her hands did not shake as she opened the terminal on the wall. She went to log in using Father’s credentials and stopped. Someone had left this open. Someone important.

Ann looked around. No one was here. Was she really so lucky that the whole division had turned in for the night? More likely this was some kind of Institute lab experiment. Will the Synth open the terminal or will she respect the privacy of her hosts?

If they wanted her respect, they should not have killed her friend. Ever Piper’s student, Ann began to snoop.

She nearly laughed as the first entries loaded. Just departmental notices. Internal emails. The daily grind in electronic form. She felt herself start to relax. Nothing horrible. Nothing about Rita. She could keep this separate. All of this talk about resetting Synths like they were machines needing a reboot did not bother her. None of it was about Rita. It was different.

Then she saw the logs. She must have stood there for a full ten minutes just staring at the bright green text. The cursor blinked, warning her with every flash. _You don’t want to see this. You don’t want to see this. You don’t want to see this._

She made herself open the file. It was a video log. Ann watched as the room behind her appeared on the monitor. It was empty but it did not matter. She could feel the tears threatening to fall even before she saw Rita dragged in by a pair of Coursers. She was crying, pleading for mercy. She just wanted to live.

There were no speakers but Ann could swear she heard Rita screaming through the screen. _Please! Why are you doing this?! I’m sorry! Please, let me go!_

_Please!_

And no one helped her. The Coursers strapped her to the machine, fixed her back against the needles, and started killing the life begging to be let go. Rita’s body shook with terror and with every sobbing breath. Her cheeks glistened innocently under too-harsh lights.

Ann cried with her, her own tears in a silent, bitter reflection of Rita’s. She made herself watch the whole thing, until Rita was gone and something cold and dead walked out of the room wearing her face.

When the screen went black, there were no more doubts in Ann’s mind. Father had to pay. The Institute had to pay for what it had done to Rita. They were right, she realized. Rita had not been human. No human could be that innocent, that pure and sweet and gentle.

Ann flicked through the other files without really looking at them. They did not matter anymore. Finding out what made her different was suddenly unimportant. She still craved it, desired that hidden piece of knowledge more than anything else in her life, but now it seemed so trivial. How could she care about herself when people like Rita were going through… that?

Rita. Rita had shown her something. Someone. Who Ann wanted to be.

Her hand came to rest on her sidearm. The magazine was full. It would be so easy just to run. Even easier would be to find Father and put a bullet in his head. She would die but damn would she smile as she went.

No. Not yet. She had to play this carefully. She could not risk losing any more Synths. Not because she was too careless. There was so much she had to do and so little time to do it. If only Rita were still alive. She could have told Ann all about these other Synths. Did they have contacts above ground? Had any ever escaped? How?

Ann cursed herself for being so slow to figure it out. She, of all people, should have understood what these Synths were going through. It was the same desire that had brought her here, to the Institute and to Father. _What am I? Why am I here? And who are you to tell me I am less than human?_

The gravity of what she was about to do hit Ann like a dead Brahmin. It pleased her when her knees refused to buckle. She would not shy away. She had access to the surface, but how did that work? This teleporter they referred to so casually was a mystery to her, but she did not need to understand how the door worked, only who held the key.

As she turned to leave the horrible room, Ann was struck with another, much weightier thought, one that made her knees weak and her heart murmur. She would need more than a key to the door. She would need help once she got inside.

And there was only one person in the Commonwealth brave enough to fight the Institute.

 

The Brotherhood had not attacked during the night. Nora had never thought she would be grateful to them for anything, but having that one night, that one, short reprieve in Piper’s arms, had been nothing short of a godsend. She had never lied to Piper. She would have waited as long as it took, even if Nat had moved away and Piper was no longer the only papergirl in town. It would have been painful, lonely, and bitter cold, but she would have waited.

Nora walked between Railroad strong points and looked away to the west. On the top floor of one of those abandoned buildings, the two had at last found some peace and quiet to shatter. She felt herself being physically dragged toward the room, back up to the mattress. She wondered if Piper was still up there, sleeping through the morning in a stolen blanket and nothing else. Imagining her hair splayed out over the bed, how it felt between her fingers, how it smelled as it fell across her face, nearly sent Nora sprinting back.

She hoped no one noticed as she tripped over a crack in the pavement.

Gunfire, the ubiquitous background noise of the Commonwealth, stirred Nora to her senses. No man’s land stretched in front of her. An area of a few dozen city blocks between the Railroad’s positions and the Brotherhood’s, it was a strangely quiet place. Any Raiders squatting in the area would be in for a nasty surprise when the Brotherhood attack came.

The sound of traditional ballistics was a nice change. Worse was the faint hiss-pop of Institute laser fire. It was less common even than the baying of Mutant Hounds but was far more unnerving. Whatever the Institute was doing out there, unlike the mutants, they had a plan. Nora had already suffered once at the hands of those monsters. She would never let them do the same to Piper.

She could just imagine Piper. ‘You can’t take them on by yourself! You need someone to watch your back. Oh, while we’re there, there’s this abandoned water treatment plant filled with Mirelurks that we should check out. Because there’s bound to be a story there, Blue! Now come on! The truth is out there!’

Imagining Piper’s somewhat fanatical voice always put a smile on Nora’s face, though never so much as the real thing. Nora turned down an alley, cutting across the front lines. The Railroad had things well in hand. A few scouts had encountered their Brotherhood counterparts, their duels invariably ending in a few stray shots and the pattering of feet making for safer ground. She felt comfortable enough to go back. No, this was not the pathetic, longing feeling of a lovesick teenager pining for her lover’s closeness. She was a grown woman far above such things.

That did not stop her from seeking her out. They still needed to talk. Nora just wanted to make sure everything was okay between them. That was all. But, if things happened to be going okay and Piper happened to be up for something besides talking, that was just fine too.

Piper was up for talking. Nora heard her voice even before she rounded the corner. She could not make out the words, but her voice sounded different. Good different, calm and sure, like she knew how this all would end.

The girl in the press cap, her red trench coat flowing like a cape, had found her calling. She had drawn a crowd of Railroad listeners, so many that Nora would not have been able to see the woman if she had not perched herself on top of a burnt-out car.

It should not have been so surprising. The Railroad loved the Publick and its creator. That was, after all, why they were all here. What surprised Nora was how inhuman Piper looked. She looked more real than everything else. All around them, the ruins of Boston begged to be left alone as all their splendid colors faded to the same, desiccated gray of the dead. Even the memory of those who lived here had bled from the world. Everything here was fading to black, the credits set to roll as Boston’s final act played out.

But Piper. Piper was still here, still shouting her lines as the curtain dropped around her. Everything around her looked more alive. The walls seemed more colorful, the ruins now standing tall, promising shelter and a brighter tomorrow.

Nora could hear muffled words echoing off the buildings. She was telling some story about Nora. Or maybe it was about Ann?

The woman looked up and saw her greatest admirer, and Nora heard her clearly say “We can do better.”

She smiled as she said it and Nora could hardly keep herself from smiling back.

It was not until evening that Nora got another moment alone with Piper. Finally shaking off her adoring masses, Piper found her way to Nora’s side as she sat along the edge of the street.

“I’m proud of you, you know,” Nora said as Piper sat down, settling her chin on Nora’s shoulder.

“Why’s that?”

Nora smirked. “That’s the first happy mob you’ve ever made. No torches or pitchforks anywhere.”

Piper screwed up her face in an affectionate, smiling scowl. Nora hated to admit it but she loved that face. She loved driving Piper insane. It was the only way she really knew how to love her. “I don’t know why I ask anymore.”

“Expecting a serious answer?”

“Not really,” Piper sighed, worming her way under Nora’s arm and settling against her side. “I mean, I know you’re just going to grin and say something smart, but I always ask. What does that say about how well your dear Piper knows you?”

Nora smiled broadly, embraced the words of the dead Doctor Machson, and let Piper cast them back in his face. Her lips met Piper’s head as she murmured her answer. “It says she knows me very well, and that she loves it when I drive her mad.”

The softness of her laugh always took Nora by surprise. “She does. She really, really does.”

Clanging plates and shouts from across the street signaled dinner was being served. Neither woman moved. Nora liked to believe it was for more reasons than fear of whatever was being served. Cram could only be done so many ways.

“How’d we get here, Blue?” Piper asked.

Nora looked down the street. Runners were darting in and out of the command post as always, but their pace was more frantic. She did not need to read their reports to know what they said. The Brotherhood was coming. There would be no attack on the Prydwen, no desperate Railroad gambit that saved them all from the fighting. They had run out of time. This battle would be fought, and it would be fought street by street, house by house, room by room, until it was decided by the unshakable courage of those now wolfing down their very last meal across the road.

And there was not a person in the world who deserved such loyalty more than Piper Wright.

“Someone very brave stood up to some very bad people,” Nora said as she held Piper close. “And now she has friends – a lot of friends – who are going to make sure those bad people can’t hurt her.”

A very undignified snort emerged from somewhere below Nora’s arm. “Listen to you, sweet-talking little old me.” There was a long pause as she tried to burrow even deeper into the folds of Nora’s coat. “You don’t really see me that way. Do you?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, you’re definitely the first person to ever say it to me. I mean, come on, you’ve been to Diamond City. If I’d had friends, I wouldn’t have needed to slum it with the likes of you.”

Nora sat up indignantly. “You never slummed it with me, you set Nat on me. You had your little sister try to drive me out of the city!”

Piper scoffed. “Come on. If Nat wanted you gone, you would have been gone. That was just her way of saying hi.”

“You know she put a Radroach in my room once?” When Piper did not answer right away, Nora pushed the woman off her shoulder. “That was you, wasn’t it?”

Her smile was pure innocence. “Uh, I was just saying hi?”

Nora pushed the press cap down over Piper’s eyes and pulled the laughing prankster into her arms. “Here she is, folks, Piper Wright, hero of the Commonwealth.”

The sound of her incessant giggling carried through the evening. The sun dipped lower on the horizon as the two made the most of their last peaceful hours. Piper's stomach began grumbling, uncaring that the only food around was canned, two hundred years old, and had taken on an unspeakable color. Nora's cared even less. The two ate with abandon, chatting happily about noodles and Piper's somewhat concerning addiction to Nuka Cola. Nora had told her time and again that her addictions would be the death of her, but she had never before prayed to be proven right.

_Let her die in bed, surrounded by empty cola bottles and packs of cigarettes._ It was not a prayer Nora had ever imagined speaking, but if that was to be Piper's fate, at least she would outlive the night, and that was enough for her.

The small talk died as the light began to fade. They pretended their shivering was from the cold, retiring to their little sanctuary like everything was perfectly normal. High above the street, above the Railroad and the Brotherhood and all the cares of the world, they found a few moments of peace. There it was that they watched the stars come out. There it was that they said their wordless goodbyes.

Nora’s rifle sat by the door, waiting patiently to be used. It knew what was coming just as surely as the woman who wielded it. This was why it had been made.

The woman herself leaned against the wall and peered out into the distance. Silence fell over the battlefield as, one by one, the guns stopped firing. Shadowed figures crept into holes or climbed into buildings. Quiet prayers that would never be answered drifted from the rubble. In a thousand darkened corners, the Railroad waited.

Out of sight, far beyond the broken buildings that would soon decide the fate of so many lives, Brotherhood soldiers leaned forward, intent on butchering one girl in a red coat. Nora could see them, she thought, if she looked hard enough through the solid brick and concrete. She wondered what they were thinking tonight. She wondered what the Railroad was thinking picking a fight with them.

Piper crept off the bed, fully dressed, her press cap tilted just to the side. The sound of a fresh magazine sliding into her pistol was deafening. “What do you say, Blue?” she asked as she racked the slide.

“Ready to go home?”


	12. The Sound of the Guns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Railroad defends Diamond City against the Brotherhood assault

Piper huddled inside the ruins of an old building and hoped no one noticed her shaking. Nora was out there, somewhere. She needed someone with her. The damn woman was always doing something stupid. She needed Piper there with her to keep her alive.

As if Piper could do anything but get in the way. That was what Desdemona seemed to think, anyway. Both she and Nora had insisted she stay toward the rear, out of the worst of the fighting. _You’ll be no good to anyone if you catch a stray bullet._ She would be no good to anyone if she did not do any fighting, either.

Another storm of violent shivering forced Piper to crouch deeper in her hole. “Why is it so damn quiet?” she heard herself whisper.

“Calm before the storm,” murmured a Railroad agent beside her. He was hunched behind a broken wall, his cap peeping just over the lip to look into the street.

“You’ve been through this before?” she asked, trying not to sound desperate.

The man laughed softly. “No, I don’t think anyone has. Not like this, anyway. I’ve seen raids, ambushes, street brawls, but never anything like this.”

Of course he noticed Piper’s shaking. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Glory’s out there. And your Nora. Between those two, the Brotherhood doesn’t stand a chance. We’ll be lucky to see any action at all.”

Piper did not answer him. Eventually he turned away, staring into the street with everyone else. Waiting.

He was right. Nora was out there. Piper bent her head and closed her eyes. She had never been the praying sort, but if there was a God, if anyone was up there, she would do anything if they would just keep Nora safe. _Please. Please just keep her safe. Let me see her again. Just one more time._

She felt it more than she heard it. Everyone along the line did. The low thrum of wings in the distance. It stayed on the edge of hearing, growing slowly louder in her chest while staying impossibly soft in her ears. Her chest felt like it was shaking itself to pieces as it resonated with the deep bass of flying death. Piper felt herself gritting her teeth but found she could not hear them chattering. She could barely hear herself think.

One of the stars overhead exploded. Suddenly it was daylight. Piper shielded her eyes against the horrible, white light as a second sun burst to life high in the air.

She tried to crawl out of her hole and get into the shade to keep her eyes from burning out. The man beside her grabbed her shoulder and pushed her back down. “Here they come!”

Machine gun fire tore the air to pieces. Piper tried to burrow deeper into the ground as the bullets whined and popped and screamed in a chorus that sounded for all the world like ‘you’ll never see your sister again.’

Vertibirds. What must have been hundreds of them thundered overhead, spraying the ruins with hate. Bits of rock and rubble peppered her back as Piper tried to make herself small. Her hands went to her ears as she tried to shut out the racket. She felt it inside her head, beating her brain like a drum. She should have given up. She never should have come back. Nora was going to die out there. She was probably already dead. No one could survive this.

More gunfire filled the air. Piper heard the loud _fash_ of rocket fire, then the deep, gut-churning boom as the shots hit home. Too afraid to stand, she craned her neck skyward to see a flaming Vertibird come streaking overhead, slamming into a building just down the road. The explosion sent dust falling from the ceiling and bounced the little pieces of rubble littering the floor.

She could hear fighting everywhere now. Rockets zipped through the air above her to leave streaks of white made even sharper by the flare. Tracer fire cut intricate designs in the air as machine guns tried to murder each other.

And Piper lay motionless, too terrified to stand. She screamed in rage as the bullets cut through her building. She was useless. This was all her fault and she was doing nothing to stop it. People were dying because of her. For her. She had to do something.

So she screamed, giving voice to that wordless, animal howl that was helplessness itself.

 

Nora groaned as she hauled herself up the rope. Hand over hand, bit by bit, up and up she climbed. If only the on ramp had survived the centuries. The Wasteland had a way of keeping one fit, but a vertical climb with a full pack was an ordeal even by its exacting standards.

She reached the lip of the highway, hoisting herself over the side and into a blazing fretwork of tracer fire. Even on her belly, wriggling her way toward a wrecked car, she swore she could feel the wind from the bullets as they passed just inches over her head. Brotherhood gunners streaked by in their Vertibirds, scouring the span with gunfire as angry passengers took pot shots or lobbed grenades.

Railroad soldiers scampered between burning bits of cover, their own anger howling from gun barrels and rocket tubes. Vertibirds burned by the score but with every one shot down, two more seemed to pop up.

A break in the fire gave Nora the chance to pelt across the road and find shelter from the steel wind. Far worse than the carnage on the highway was the battle beginning to play out in the cityscape far below. Molten pits of fire had begun to spread as Brotherhood fanatics shot and blasted and burned their way into the heart of Boston.

Piper was down there.

Nora wasted no time, that one thought spurring her to new speeds as she got into position. The Brotherhood knew exactly where the Railroad had been. Desdemona had seen it coming, as had Nora, but whether that had helped at all remained to be seen. Traps had been laid, ambushes set to spring, one of which hinged on Nora getting into position rather than worrying about the woman she was fucking.

She passed Glory on the span, her minigun spooled up and tearing pieces of Vertibirds away like they were made of tin foil and duct tape. Just beyond her was the off ramp. Nora skidded up behind the metal sheets, each one recently placed by brave Tourists, and set her rifle on the lip of the highway.

And waited.

It felt like hours. Hours of darkness, of gunfire and screaming, of wondering if Piper was still alive. If she was hurt. Hours of imagining the woman in the red coat in some ruined corner, alone and afraid, her hands covered in blood as she died. Alone.

The first suit of Power Armor thumped down in the street below. Squads of supporting infantry pushed forward, their muzzle flashes winking up and down the street like Christmas lights.

Nora squeezed the trigger. The suit of Power Armor whirled toward her, staggering slightly as its helmet sparking with the impact. Her next shot punched through the eyepiece.

Panic spread through his friends. Rifle fire from nowhere tore into them as Nora sent her own confusion, fear, and hate to rain down on the men who had given it life. She knew it was not their fault. They were just doing their job. But so was she.

Too many figures scuttled back into the ruins on either side of the street. Another flare popped to life in the sky, joining the dozen others still spiraling slowly toward the ground. Nora left her empty magazine on the ground and made a run for it.

She was too late. Muzzle flashes winked in the windows and chased Nora from the span with a hail of hissing bullets. This was, of course, all part of the plan, but when they had been talking it over, somehow she had imagined the bullets a little farther away.

Two more positions on the highway were waiting for Nora, and twice more she drew fire from the Brotherhood. It was harrowing work, but every grunt she dropped, every squad she drew away from the rest, was one less the Railroad would have to deal with. The more strung out they were, the fewer guns would be aimed at the girl in the press cap.

With the Brotherhood drawn away, it now fell to a dozen brave souls to play hide-and-seek in the ruins of Boston, heckling the scattered legions and drawing them away from the fight. It was a suicide mission if ever there was one. Nora hoped they all made it back, but for those who did not, she just hoped it was quick.

Her work far from done, Nora slithered down one of the many escape ropes and ran toward the sound of the guns. The sound of fighting was everywhere, echoing off the buildings, every shot coming from a dozen directions at once. Buildings long-since dead burned with new life, kindled by Brotherhood lasers and eager to be a part of the murderous conflagration. Nora ran on, unafraid as she charged into straight into the blazing furnace.

 

Piper had spent the first hours of the battle screaming to herself, hiding in a hole like a Mole Rat and hoping nothing fell on her head. She watched braver souls stand up, stooped with the weight of great responsibility, only to fall dead as bullets riddled them. Hoarse from screaming and unwilling to rise, she could have wept.

The bombardment ended when Nora and her cohorts took the highway, plucking Vertibirds from the air like Bloatflies and giving the rest of the Railroad a chance to breathe. Agents flooded the outlying buildings to man defenses and lay ambushes for the coming invaders.

And Piper just watched. She watched heroes vanish into the dark, heard the screams coming from every corner, and did not move to save them.

Nora skidded into the command post and very nearly bowled over two runners as they stumbled out the door. “Piper?!”

“Nora!” the useless reporter ran to meet her. Nora’s clothes were scuffed and covered in grime. Piper could see rips in her jacket from near-misses. “Are you alright?”

“Nevermind me, what about you? Are you hurt? They didn’t get through to you, did they?”

Piper nearly laughed. The only fighting she had seen was falling rocks and burning Vertibirds. Her pistol barrel was cold. She had yet to even see an enemy. “I’m fine. My pants are ruined, but –“

“Nora!”

Desdemona strode over, determined to keep the two women apart. “What the hell are you doing back?”

“I did my part,” Nora said, shouldering her rifle emphatically. “That was the plan. I draw them off, then come back and help shore up the center.”

“Why didn’t you radio?”

“We had a radio?"

Desdemona rolled her eyes. “Apparently not.”

Nora gestured toward the burning horizon. “What’s going on?”

The world turned red. Everyone turned toward the light as the horizon cut itself apart and a single, brilliant laser slashed through a nearby building. Nora groaned her usual groan.

“There’s an Assaultron tearing apart my line. Get in there and kill it.”

Nora nodded. “On it.”

Piper yelped. “What?!”

Already moving toward the door, Nora stopped before darting into the street. “I’ll be back before you know it. Just stay safe, okay? I’ll come back, I promise.”

And then she was gone, vanishing into the burning darkness. Piper whirled on Desdemona, hoping she would stop her, but the woman was already frantically directing someone over a radio.

This was Piper’s fault. She was not going to sit here and wait for Nora to save her. Not this time.

The darkness swallowed her just as completely. Her only light was a few of those flares drifting slowly to earth, each too far away to lend her much light, and the pyres now burning all around her. Shadowed figures darted in and out of buildings, each one drawing Piper’s aim as she wondered desperately whether they were friend or foe.

Following Nora would have been impossible in this. Fortunately, the Assaultron tearing through the Railroad was easy to find. Every few minutes, a blinding flash of red would light up the sky, reminding Piper that Nora was planning on jumping in front of it. Each time she saw it, she ran a little faster.

She knew she had arrived when she found Railroad agents cowering in corners, their ears covered from the din. A few sobbed. A few tried to fight it off. Most just tried to run.

Piper emerged from the alleys to find Nora already battling the Assaultron. Striding through the street, the monster whirled its claws in circles, its eye glowing a horrible red. Light flashed from the buildings on all sides as Brotherhood soldiers advanced behind their instrument of terror. Railroad agents turned and ran.

And then there was Nora. Piper watched as the woman she loved ran across the street, firing from the hip at the advancing army. The Assaultron turned its gaze on her, its eye glowing white. The Brotherhood regulars ducked for cover.

Just as Nora reached the end of the street, Piper lost her, her vision burned away by the Assualtron’s laser. The noise threatened to deafen her and even as she closed her eyes, the flash of light stayed with her, seared into her eyes.

As the sound of the laser stopped, Piper let go of her ears and crept to the side of her building. The first floor had been completely torn away, its edges black and scarred. She could hear the structure groaning with the effort of staying upright.

She heard herself laugh as the familiar pop of Nora’s rifle came from the next building. Of course she had survived. The Assaultron, annoyed, began charging its beam as Nora’s shots sparked off its armor. Piper looked around the alley. Nothing. There had to be something she could do to help but throwing rocks was not much of a plan. Darting across the alley, she hurried into the next building, trying to ignore as this one groaned just as badly as the first. To be crushed under a building was not how Piper wanted to go. There was not nearly enough flair.

The Railroad had left almost nothing in the building. Piper managed to scavenge a few grenades from a forgotten box of ammunition but there was no Fat Man, no rocket launcher. The eye was charging again. She peeked over the wall to find it fixed on Nora’s building across the street. Seeing her chance, Piper pulled the pin on one of the grenades and threw it.

Bullets sparked off the window frames and sent Piper yelping back into cover. The Assaultron must have heard her, too, because a moment later, that beam returned for her. With a vengeance it swept over her head, burning away whatever was left of the building’s legs. Piper tried to scramble for the alley but found herself unable to stand up without being shot to pieces or turned to ash by the beam.

So she crawled, scrambling mile after mile to find the door as the structure squealed. After a small eternity, she heard the muted thump of her grenade going off.

The beam stopped. Piper pushed herself up, daring to crawl her way to the alley just as the structure came crashing down around her. Not stopping to look, she raced the dust cloud around the next corner where she collapsed in a hacking, coughing fit.

Gunfire still echoed in the street behind her. She had to get back. Nora needed her. She heard the angry, simulated woman’s voice of the Assaultron. It was still alive. Piper tried to stand but every time she fell back, clutching her sides as she gasped for breath.

It was the Assaultron that finally stirred her. Still trying to claw the dust from her throat, Piper saw the flash of that damn laser as it chased Nora. She watched the dust billow out into the street turn a deep, otherworldly red.

Scrambling out into the street, Piper braced herself against the wall of the next building and hobbled on. The dust had cleared enough for her to see the Assaultron. Piper nearly cheered. It was down. Judging by the eye, it was still livid, but it was on its knees, one leg crippled and dragging uselessly behind.

A flash of shadow tore across the street. Nora came sprinting forward, head down and feet flying. Piper raised her pistol but did not dare to fire for risk of hitting Nora. The eye was charging. She had to do something.

Nora leapt into the air, sailing into the chest of the robot. Her rifle flashed. Sparks flew. The monster screeched. Nora crashed into the Assaultron feet-first, her boots latching onto the thing’s chest as it sprawled into the street. Its eye crackled and snapped in scarlet bursts as Nora poured fire into it.

The eye went dark.

Then Piper did cheer.

Nora was already running toward her. “Dammit, Piper! I told you to stay safe!”

Piper let herself be pulled into the alley. “I just saved your life!” she countered angrily.

“I know,” Nora pushed her against the wall and kissed her, and for one brief, wonderful moment, Piper forgot where they were. “But you can’t take risks like that. If you die, this is all for nothing.”

“Being a bit dramatic, are we?” Piper huffed, angry both at Nora’s words and that the woman had stopped kissing her. If the Brotherhood happened to show up while Nora had Piper pinned to a wall, surely they would come back another time. She swore that, once this was over, she was going to lock Nora inside Publick Occurrences for a month.

Piper raced back to the command post just behind Nora. Desdemona was waiting. “Good work. I’ve got people shoring up the line already.”

Nora rushed up to the map and took stock. “Isn’t it time we fall back? We’re exposed here. They have to know where we are by now.”

“We’re holding them in check,” Des argued. “They know we’re here but our position is strong. They’ll have a hell of a time pushing us out.”

Nora argued back. Des dug in her heels. Piper watched in silence. She had no idea how to handle this. Her instincts told her to run. Nora had the right of it. If they kept moving, the Brotherhood would keep chasing. It was not in their nature to leave an enemy on the field, even if going after it meant getting to Diamond City just a little later. The Railroad knew these ruins. Nora had made several convincing arguments for a guerilla-style engagement against Desdemona’s hold-the-line mentality.

Something drew Piper back to the edge of the post. She thought she heard something in the distance. Or maybe she saw the shadow against the stars before even the sentries. With everyone’s eyes fixed on the distance, on the burning buildings and darting figures, that made sense to Piper.

“What is that?” Piper asked, more to herself than anyone else.

Nora was beside her in a heartbeat. “What is what?”

Piper pointed to the sky. Nora laughed. “Oh, well, fuck me, then.”

One of the sentries pointed. “Is that the fucking Prydwen?”

It was. High above the battlefield, moving unseen and unheard, like the Angel of Death, was the Prydwen. Piper did not need to look behind her to know the lights of Diamond City were on the horizon. That was where it was going.


	13. And the Rockets' Red Glare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nora scales Trinity Tower to take down the Prydwen while Piper fights alongside the Railroad

“Is that thing carrying bombs?” Desdemona shouted above the panic.

“You want to wait around and find out?” Piper snapped. It was going after her sister. Nat was going to die.

Nora was shoving people aside as they ran wild. “Tom! Tom, where the fuck are you?!”

Tinker Tom appeared from nowhere, still wearing his usual outfit. He probably had no idea there was even a war on. “Yo, yo, right here. What you need?”

“Something to kill that!” Nora pointed at the Prydwen.

Tom did not even look. “What do I look like to you, some know-nothing nobody with no toys? I got just what you need.”

Piper honestly did not see where he pulled the Fat Man from before Nora wrenched it from his grip. “Need something bigger, Tom.”

“That ain’t no ordinary toy, that’s a Tinker Tom speciali-tay. Trust me,” he produced a single mini-nuke painted with a double-red stripe. “One shot from this baby, and that tin can will come crashing down to earth, back where it belongs.”

“You sure?” she asked, stuffing the bomb into her pack roughly enough to make the whole room cringe. “Nevermind, of course you are. Thanks, Tom.”

Nora pelted back toward Des. “That enough reason to get your people moving?”

“Already on it,” she said, shoving another runner toward the door. “Mind telling me what you’re doing?”

“Going to end this bullshit,” Nora said as she shoved a flare gun into the woman’s hands. “Find someone to shoot this off when the Prydwen is overhead. I’ll be in position. Just make sure it goes off. I need to see what I’m shooting.”

The flare gun passed into Glory’s waiting hands. “You really think you’re going to miss hitting that big-ass blimp?”

Nora was already out the door. “Not aiming for the blimp!”

Piper stared. She was gone. Again. She was gone and Piper was still standing there like a useless piece of forgotten luggage. “Oh, no, don’t worry about me! I’ll just stay back here while you win the whole fucking war!” Piper shouted angrily into the swirling dark. “If you get yourself killed, don’t expect me to cry about it!”

 

Nora ran like the hounds of hell were behind her, flying over rubble and darting under buildings. This was, without doubt, the stupidest thing she had ever done. Would ever do. There was no way in hell she would live through this.

But Nat would. Piper would.

Her flight took her through a half-collapsed building already engulfed in flames. The timbers creaked as she ran, sparks showering her and smoke clawing at her eyes and throat. She hoped Piper had not followed her this time. Nora ran room to room, hopped through a window, and found herself standing at the foot of her tombstone.

There it was. Through the smoke and darkness and flicking lights of burning buildings, was Trinity Tower.

Brotherhood soldiers were already on the far side, dueling with angry Super Mutants for control of the plaza. Nora avoided them, gunning down startled green monsters from behind whenever they noticed her. Bullets chased her up the first flight of stairs, then faded as she tossed herself into an elevator and hit the button.

Up and up she climbed, at a pace so agonizingly slow she wished she had just taken the stairs. Super Mutant roars could be heard echoing in the shaft as the elevator groaned its way upward. Nora checked her rifle, adjusted the Fat Man on her shoulder, and made sure her pack was secure. She would do no one any good if she got vaporized after taking a bad step.

The door dinged open. Nora was out in a flash. Super Mutant fire chased her across the atrium and into the next room as she ran, firing from the hip. This was only the beginning, she told herself. She had to clear every floor before the Prydwen moved.

More Mutants pushed into her room. Nora mowed them down. Faster. She had to be faster.

Rifles barked. Mutants screamed. Nora ran.

Floor blurred together. She had to be faster. She took a corner too quickly, catching fire from an angry Mutant that tore open her leg. She collapsed, her rifle still true enough to catch her assailant in the chest and throat. Nora forced herself up. This was nothing. She had to keep going. She had to. This was too important.

Nora scrambled across the floor under another stream of bullets. Mutants howled above and below as they hunted her. Brotherhood soldiers shouted curses from below as they flooded the building. This was it. This was how she was going to die.

Her rifle shouted them all down, defiant to the end. Mutants fell with their hounds as Nora committed her protracted suicide. Laser fire from below began lighting up the corridors behind her. Not long now.

She reached the roof, sidearm drawn and angry as it knocked the last of the Tower’s original owners to the floor. Her last rounds sent a large, green body tumbling into thin air, its screams joining the larger chorus being belted out far below.

A moment of silence settled over the rooftop. The gunfire below her seemed far away, almost as far as the distant explosions in the street. Little bursts of light connected by red streaks of angry death. Nora could not make out any figures in the streets. Nowhere in sight was the red press cap or the glint of Brotherhood armor. Just little motes of light zipping this way and that.

In the clouds, far above, it was almost beautiful.

Nora reloaded her rifle. Last magazine. Her pistol found its holster again. She unlimbered the Fat Man, letting her bag fall to the floor. The mini nuke inside clunked innocently into the frame. Nora made minute adjustments to the fins, pretending she knew what she was doing. It had gotten her this far.

More gunfire erupted from below. Her rifle, leaning against a bit of railing beside her, waited patiently to be used one last time. Nora settled against the stairs.

“Come on, Piper,” she whispered as the black hulk of the Prydwen lumbered by.

She knew it would be Piper who saved her, not Glory. It was always Piper. Nora smiled at the thought. She was going to miss that woman.

 

Piper fired blindly over the crumbling wall. She should have gone after Nora. The two of them worked so well together. Sure, Nora did most of the work, but whenever she slipped, Piper was there to catch her. They could have handled anything together.

The Brotherhood was pushing hard. Desdemona frantically ordered her fighters out of the line and into the surrounding buildings, just as Nora had suggested, but it was too late. Piper poked her head out to watch a Brotherhood knight in full armor kick in the side of a building, his laser gattling emptying into the room. The screaming of those inside flooded the street.

Glory screamed, too, knocking the man over with a burst of minigun fire that left his armor filled with smoking holes. More kept coming, stepping over their dead as they charged. Piper could not fire fast enough. All down the line, barrels began to glow red with heat. Glory’s minigun shone like a torch. They could not keep this up much longer.

But they had to hold. Nora was counting on them.

Piper grabbed a rifle off a fallen Railroad agent and began popping away. She had to do something. They were all running short on ammunition. She ducked as the pop of bullets grew too close, watching in horror as another Railroad agent pitched backward and did not rise. This was insanity. They were all going to die here.

Desdemona was shouting. “Pull back! Everyone, grab what you can and get out! We are overrun!”

Glory either refused or did not hear her over the sound of her minigun. Piper pretended not to hear either. Not even daring to leave her cover, she emptied the last of her magazine around the corner and tossed the useless hunk of metal aside. There had to be something .There was always a way.

More and more Brotherhood poured into the open. Laser fire scorched so close that Piper could swear it passed right through her. She was all that was left here. The Railroad had gone, leaving Nora alone in the dark. Only Piper had stayed. Piper and one angry woman with a really big gun.

She wanted to scream. If she stood, she died. If she stayed, Nora died.

In the distance, Trinity Tower flared with life. Explosions had been blossoming from windows ever since Nora had run away. That was where she had to be, Piper thought, up there with all the Mutants and Brotherhood and probably some Institute drones just for good measure.

Nora could handle it. She kept telling herself that, over and over like a prayer. Nora could handle it. She could handle anything. All Piper had to do was not get shot. That was all.

Howling Brotherhood soldiers had closed to within grenade range. Piper threw her own, listening to the blast and taking visceral pleasure in the screams. It no longer mattered that they were just doing their job, trying to save the world from Piper Wright. They were trying to kill Nat.

Glory was yelling something. Piper strained to hear it over the din. “Take it!”

The flare gun flew across the open ground, spinning lazily between the bursts of laser fire and tracer rounds. Piper caught it, cradling it as tenderly as if she held Nora’s life in her hands. She was holding Nora’s life in her hands.

“Go!” Glory cut loose another thunderous, cackling burst. “Move your ass or she dies!”

Piper jumped to her feet. Bullets popped all around her. She had the insane urge to brush them away, like flies they were so numerous and so close. Her coat rippled as bits of metal punched through it. Her arms stung. Her legs burned.

To the back of the building Piper ran, up the stairs as bullets sparked all around her. The roof was gone, blown away a hundred years ago. Piper stood alone, Glory holding back the tide beneath, Nora far away. This was the end, she decided, and it was the one she would have chosen a thousand times over. Nat would be safe.

The Prydwen hung in the air above her, its black hulk silhouetted against the stars. No more flares came from the Brotherhood lines but it was still as clear as day. But, whatever Nora was doing, she needed a flare. She needed light.

And there, on the roof, the bullets singing all round her, Piper raised one arm high above her head, and bathed the world in light.

 

The Prydwen lit up like it was on stage, its moment in the spotlight finally realized. Nora stood, her heart hammering. Brotherhood soldiers pounded up the stairs below her. It was too far away. There was no way the flying bomb would reach it.

White streamers unfolded themselves all around the airship as Railroad soldiers down below let loose with every missile launcher and big gun they had in their arsenal. But it would take more than handheld rocketry and big bits of lead to crack open the hull of the Brotherhoods flying fortress.

She squeezed the trigger.

The mini nuke shot forward, its screamers screaming. The telltale whine filled the air, stopping the pounding of boots below. In the light of the flare, Nora watched the bomb fall.

Someone below laughed. “She missed!”

Nora tossed the Fat Man off the side of the tower. Unable to resist one last flourish, she kicked her rifle upward, caught the grip, and leveled it at the falling bomb.

_Hey Piper, watch this._

It only took one shot. Just as the bomb was falling below the Prydwen, Nora fired. The first explosion blinded her.

The second threw her against the building. Alarms blared in panic from the crippled airship. Men shouted in panic as they watched their home go up in flames or fell at the hands of angry Mutants still intent on fighting. Nora picked herself off the floor to watch.

The exploding nuke had ignited one of the Prydwen’s gas tanks, knocking it off balance and sending it listing badly to one side. Nora stood up and laughed as the wind carried her hair out behind her. It was going down. All that steel and armor plating was just going to drag it to earth with the rest of its crew.

Her laughter stopped as the ship began to drift toward the Tower. Nora stared. She had not thought about that.

There was only one way down that would not end with a sudden splat and another red stain on the pavement. Nora wheeled around, tearing toward the elevator shaft. The doors still sat open, a car waiting to carry her to safety.

Nora threw herself inside, punching at the ground floor button. The doors closed.

She heard the voice in the ceiling chirp "Going down."

Nora fired into the ceiling. The cable snapped. The car squealed.

The world ended to the sound of screaming steel as the Prydwen slammed into the building.


	14. Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper searches the battlefield for Nora

Piper had cheered when the Prydwen burned. She had cheered as all those on board fell to their deaths. She had even cheered when she saw those on the ground screaming in terror as their only way home was reduced to a heap of slag.

She had stopped when she saw it falling toward the tower. She had watched, mute with horror, as the Prydwen broke its back on Trinity Tower, scraping away walls and metal as it fell to earth. She had felt herself start to sob. Nora. Nora was up there.

Glory had dragged her off the roof and into another building where the two had ridden out the waves of dust and falling debris. It had been hours before Piper had caught her breath, before the sting of the dust left her eyes and she was left with nothing but tears of panic and grief.

Nora had to be alive. She had to be. She could handle anything. After everything they had been through, she would not die here. _You wouldn’t leave me alone. Not like this._

Piper scrambled over the fallen wall and out into the open. What had once been the Prydwen was now nothing more than twisted metal, a wrecked skeleton that still smoldered in the morning light. Railroad agents milled aimlessly through the ruins. It was over. They had won. And none of their friends were coming back.

Glory went off to find Desdemona, leaving Piper alone on her pile of rocks. She thought she heard Glory tell her to stay put before she left but ignored her. She had to find Nora. Alive or dead, she had to know. Had to see.

The Prydwen had split itself in half as it fell. Piper picked her way through what had once been the front, maybe even the command deck, looking everywhere for a body. Bodies she found, and by the hundreds, but none of them were Nora.

Through the wreckage she climbed, over twisted bits of steel that had once been so purposefully molded. Trinity Tower, or what was left of it, sprawled into the street beyond. Piper had watched it collapse. It had looked unreal, so dignified and intentional in its fall. Knowing its time had come, it had let out its last breath, breathing out with its walls and coming to rest on the surrounding city, like an old man at last finding his favorite chair. She had been unable to tear herself away from it all.

Inside the building, Piper found nothing. Only drifting piles of rubble. She had no idea where the floor was or if she was even inside the walls at all without looking up for reassurance. This could not be the end, she told herself. The world would not let Nora go out like that. She would not go on without saying goodbye.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?” Piper whispered to the air. “You weren’t supposed to go out there alone. Not without me.”

She dragged a dirty sleeve over her eyes. What was she going to tell Nat?

Something moved.

Piper looked up, eyes wild. She heard the scrabbling of rocks tumbling over each other, the sound of boots scraping stone. She shot to her feet, frantically searching for the one woman not even the Wasteland itself could kill.

And there she was. Piper skidded through what was left of a wall and saw her, framed by the rising sun, standing on a pile of rubble like she was going for a morning walk.

Piper felt herself start to run over the broken ground, scrambling up each rise and down each valley with the grace of a drunken Radstag. Nora just watched, smiling, as Piper made an ass out of herself.

At long last, Piper made it up that last rise, got one foot under her, and leapt into the woman’s arms. Nora laughed, twirling her in the early light and kissing her like she never thought she would get another chance.

Piper let herself be held, let herself be kissed, and let herself be carried away in the moment. This was what she had fought for, what made it all worth it.

“Told you I’d make it,” Nora said when Piper finally let her breathe.

Piper heard her own manic laughter without realizing she was laughing. She decided it was less enjoyable than kissing the woman holding her off the ground. She wrapped her legs around Nora’s chest, holding herself up and probably breaking the woman’s back. She did not care at all.

Nora did, finally urging her off after collapsing to her knees. Piper toppled onto the ground, still laughing. “Sorry,” she managed.

Nora waved her off, crawling over to her and kissing her again. “Don’t be sorry,” she said between breaths. “Just promise you’ll never make me do that again.”

Piper pulled her down until she was flat on top of her. “I promise.”

At least some part of Piper was still awake. After satisfying herself that the woman was alive, she remembered that Publick Occurrences had a door that locked. She pushed Nora off as gently as she could. “Come on. I want to tell Nat how you saved my life again.”

Nora groaned and winced her way to her feet. “Good. You do that. I’m going to sleep for a week.”

“The hell you are,” Piper purred, hoisting Nora onto her shoulder. “When we get home, you’re getting in that bed and you’re not sleeping until I’m done with you.”

The wounded woman buckled a little and Piper liked to think it was not because of any bullet wounds. They had just started down the hill when Nora began to laugh. It was quiet, at first, growing louder as they approached the ruins of the Prydwen.

“What’s so funny?” Piper asked as they reached the bottom.

Nora gestured toward the wrecked behemoth and grinned. “One shot.”


	15. Good Intentions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper returns to Diamond City

Nora was not really sure where it started. It had always been there, quietly buzzing as she limped back to Diamond City on Piper’s comfortable shoulder, but she did not really feel it then. The moment when it first took her, demanded her attention, was when Piper first laid eyes on Nat from across the market. From the outside looking in, everything was so obvious. Nat had missed her big sister. She was angry at being left alone and terrified that she would lose the only family she had left, but that was only because she loved Piper so much.

None of this was obvious to Piper, and the sight of Nat innocently playing in the afternoon sun left her petrified. Nora wanted to help, maybe give her a little push toward her waiting family, but she just watched, unable to hold back a fond smile. She loved them both so much, and seeing them like this was almost unbearable.

_For God’s sake, Piper, you just went up against an army to get here. Don't make me come over there and drag you the last ten feet._

The little girl was standing by Arturo’s stall, playing with a bit of metal the master gunsmith had molded into a little puzzle. Piper stopped in the street, watching her for a full minute without making a sound. She was just as scared as Natalie. She loved her so much that every time she left tore her apart. She was worried she would have to leave again. Maybe it would just be easier if she hid, pretended she had never come home.

Then she made a sound. Nat’s name, said so softly it could not have possibly reached her ears. The little girl looked up, her eyes huge and hopeful. She gave her sister that heartbreaking look. Are you really back this time?

Piper was trying not to cry as Nat ran up to her, leapt into Piper’s arms as she knelt to meet the tiny center of her world. Nora picked at something caught in her eye as Piper clung to her little sister. She was not crying, of course. That would have been ridiculous.

The feeling only grew stronger as they went back to Publick Occurrences. Nat set her bag back down in her nook. Piper busied herself in the kitchen, cutting onions no one else could see as Nat unpacked her bag. They were home, now. All of them.

Only when Nat came up to Nora, hugging her and thanking her for keeping Piper safe, did the feeling overwhelm her, wash away her walls and leave her totally exposed. This was her family. She had a real family again. Nora did not cry over that. She was a grown woman and was completely in control of her emotions. It was just that, when Nat asked her why she had not said goodbye or told her where they were going, that little bit of dirt that had big bothering her all afternoon got itself stuck again.

They spent the evening making it up to the little girl. Piper told her everything – well, almost everything – that had happened out in the world. It all sounded so dramatic the way she told it. Nat’s eyes were huge as Piper built to the climax. Nora found herself just as captivated, even if she knew the story ended with the hero’s plucky sidekick plummeting thirty stories in a metal box, unable to do anything more than swear, pray, and swear some more.

She woke up the next morning alone in the bed with fresh bandages. Piper was asleep on the couch. She had probably moved down here to be closer to Nat. Nora had almost expected to find her sharing the little girl’s sleeping bag. Piper’s coat draped over her like a blanket and a very elegant length of drool running down her cheek. Nora shook her head. She wished she could take a picture, both to give Piper hell over it and to use as proof that the woman could make anything look sexy.

Everything started to feel normal again. Nora cooked, Piper made fun of her, Nat ate and laughed and went off to school. It was almost like the Brotherhood had never existed.

Piper was lounging on the couch when Nora felt the woman’s eyes settling on her. She had one leg kicked easily over the other, one arm draped along the top of the sofa. To Nora, she looked like something out of a dream.

A very long, tiring dream that had left both of them wanting even more sleep. Nora sidled up beside her, easing onto the couch and trying to see through those bleary eyes to the beautiful mind behind them. “Hey,” her hand came to rest on Piper’s leg with a gentle squeeze. “Everything okay?”

“It should be,” Piper whispered. “What you did… I can’t ever thank you enough. I have my sister back because of you. I have my home back.”

Nora smiled. “You don’t need to thank me. You deserved it. Well, you deserved not having it happen in the first place, but –“

“Nora,” her voice was soft and sweet and left no room for others. “Don’t. You did so much for me. I was losing my mind out there, worrying about Nat. I almost gave up so many times but you were always there for me, even when I couldn’t look at you without seeing someone else.”

It would have been too easy to say ‘it was nothing.’ It was even true. Nora had never really thought about it as a choice. There was no choice in her mind. If Piper needed space, she got space. If she declared war on the Commonwealth, Nora would be there to fight it. She loved her more than she could ever say.

And if Piper wanted her to say something else, she would say something else, even if she struggled with the words. “I told you about the Vault. About Nate and Shaun. The day we met, everything you saw was all I had in the world. Just a rifle and some rags and a really ugly wristwatch.”

Piper smiled as Nora shook the PipBoy for effect. She leaned over to Nora’s shoulder. “And a bad attitude.”

“You did catch me while I was hungry,” Nora replied softly. “Piper, I lost my family. I know my son is out there but it’s been so long since I’ve had any hope of seeing him. I don’t even remember when I stopped looking. When I was first outside the Vault, I went through houses and turned over mattresses because I thought I’d find him hiding underneath, waiting for his mother to come rescue him. Now… Now I just hope that he’s okay. Or that he didn’t feel it when… when it happened. Pathetic, isn’t it? For a mother to give up on her own son?”

The soft touch of Piper’s hand against her chin brought Nora’s face around and into a slow and tender kiss. “You’re not pathetic.”

“I know what I am,” Nora murmured. She had made as much peace with that as she ever would, and even Piper could never take that burden from her heart. “And I know what it’s like to lose your family. I know how it felt when you had to say goodbye to Nat. And there’s nothing in the world I wouldn’t do to keep you from losing her. She’s so lucky to have you, Piper. We both are.”

Piper, still looking exhausted, managed a smile. “Nat always said I was the lucky one,” her hands played idly with Nora’s hair behind her neck. “I think she’s right. You know better than to argue with Nat, don’t you?”

She did know better. “What I’m trying to say is, whatever is worrying you, whatever you’re thinking, I promise I’m right beside you. Wherever that takes us. You’re my family now. You both are. And I’m never losing you.”

The look on Piper’s face could have melted anyone’s heart. God, she was beautiful. “You’re right,” she smiled, giving Nora another soft kiss and settling in beside her. “You’re never losing me.”

They sat in silence for a moment, alone but for the dark thoughts in their heads. Nora did still wonder about Shaun but only in passing. Only when she wanted to know how long she should grieve before adopting Nat as his replacement. Even if she meant well, if she was only doing it because she loved Piper and her sister so much, it still felt like a betrayal.

Piper leaned heavily against Nora’s side. “Promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“Promise me this was out last adventure.”

Nora looked down to find Piper’s weary eyes now alive with hopeful light. “Our last adventure?” she repeated with a smirk.

“For a while, at least,” she tilted her head back and let her hair fall in loose strands around her eyes. “I know we’ll never be… well, normal, but I want to try. I came so close to losing everything. The next time we go out into the dark, I want to know I spent every moment I could close to you and Nat.”

There was nothing in the world Nora wanted more. “I promise.”

The Institute was still out there, the nightmare fuel of an already haunted world. At least that was a problem she understood. Even if she could not see the target, Nora knew that a well-placed bullet would send that terror away for good, just as surely as one had made ghosts of so many Brotherhood soldiers. She tried not to think about all the death and pain she was spreading around the world in the name of one woman.

But, as she told herself over and over again, it was all done in the name of a brighter tomorrow. A world where the Publick printed a Sports page next to the Funnies and the great Natalie Wright had her name placarded on some fancy, Ivy League college. Both she and Piper knew the girl would change the world in ways neither of them could imagine. It would be a place where Nora was happily forgotten, her only memory a footnote in history. She would be happy as just some snapshot of Piper’s life, a reminder that the journalist’s life had been dedicated to more than just the pen.

It would be so much easier if they were normal.

Nora wrapped her arm around Piper and held her close, the luckiest girl in the Commonwealth sheltering the bravest. It was the least she could do.

“I promise.”


	16. The Spark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity._
> 
> \- Washington Irving

“You wanted to see me?”

Father was staring out his office window, a study in frustration. No doubt he had heard about Ann’s exploits around the Institute. She had been careful, but he had to know she was sticking her nose places it did not belong.

He did not turn to face her as she walked in. “Yes.”

Brevity. That was not a good sign. Ann scanned the room carefully, looking for the telltale shimmer of a Coarser waiting to shoot her in the back. The lights were dimmed in the corners. If anyone was skulking around back there, she could not make them out.

“So,” Ann asked, her voice level. “Figured out what’s in my head?”

“I believe I have.”

Ann started leaning toward the door. She could find the teleporter and be out of here before anyone knew she was gone. All she had to do was turn around and run. She could even grab Rita on the way.

Father still did not turn. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”

Of all the things Ann had done to infuriate the Institute, she actually found herself wondering which offense he was so upset over. “What are you talking about?”

“I know everything that happens in the Institute,” Father growled. Ann nearly laughed. Egomaniacs made for wonderful villains and it pleased her that Rita had, in some small way, proved this one wrong before she died.

_There are so many of us._ Yes. Yes, there are, and Father could only find one.

Okay, maybe two. Father continued talking to the glass. “I know which files you’ve accessed. I thought, at first, that you were simply angry.”

Ann could not stop herself from laughing. “You’re damn right I am.”

“And that I could understand if the Synth you are so upset over was human. If it was a person. If it had a soul. But it does not.”

The reminder stung Ann. She should have done more. Rita could still be alive if Ann had just been faster. She could have grabbed her sooner, taken her to the surface, maybe even to Publick Occurrences. Piper would have hid her under the mattress just for the chance to interview her later. Even if she had shot Ann on sight, it would have been worth it.

Ann's voice startled them both. “Prove it.”

The words voiced themselves. Ann masked her own shock just as Father whirled from the window, eyes burning. “Excuse me?”

“Prove I don’t have a soul. Should be easy enough for a smart guy like you,” she spread her hands innocently.

She should have been running. “I can show you,” Father seethed. “Every step, every bit of gray matter that defines the thoughts you’re having right now. I can show you every synthetic bone and muscle that makes your body. I can show you, from start to finish, the process of making a Synth. I can even show you your own brain. I have it all on a computer. Your personality can be broken down into little blocks of code. Nothing more. And I don’t remember ever installing a soul.”

“I imagine your God could show you the same things,” Ann said breezily. “He could show you the divine blueprints for your brain a billion years in the making.”

“And your point is?”

“Do you think there’s a space on the drawing labeled ‘soul’? Is it a little cloud that hovers above your head? Maybe you didn’t give me a soul. Maybe one found me.”

Father chuckled mirthlessly. “Doctor Machson outdid himself with you. Or should I call him your God?”

Ann’s hackles rose. Her fingers itched to feel the weight of her pistol. What was wrong with her? She should either shoot him or get the hell out, not stand around and play with her ego.

“No, no I shouldn’t,” Father continued. “After all, let us not forget that you are my creation. And I am very disappointed in you, Ann.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t seem upset, but I doubt you want any of my tears. They’re not real enough.”

If looks could kill, Ann would have been a pile of smoking dust. Then again, so would Father. “No, you are not just angry with the Institute. You are not just angry with me. You have allowed this incident, this false life, to taint your view of us, to warp it beyond repair.”

“Her name was Rita,” Ann growled.

Father only shook his head, disappointed with the child that refused to learn. “I was willing to forgive so much for you. I invited you into my home, treated you as I have treated no other Synth, and you repaid me with a knife in the back. Even after I learned of your… conversations with this pet Synth of yours, I was willing to grant you clemency. All in the name of progress.”

He paused, looking Ann over with that fond look Ann so hated. “All because you wear her face.”

Her voice was pure hatred. “I am not your creation. And I am not your fucking Nora.”

Father’s eyes went soft and cold at once in living portraitures of resignation. “No. No, you are not, and that is something I should have realized long ago.”

As she watched Father turn back toward the window, Ann was suddenly very aware of the gun now being trained on her. There was a Courser here. Probably more than one. There was no way she could beat it to the draw. She had to go. She had to get out of here. The teleporter was not far. She could find Rita, get to the surface, and hide.

She could find Piper. Piper would help her.

“I kept you here out of sentiment,” Father’s tone was cold as death. “That sentiment has now expired. I would say you’ve been a model guest, but, well, we both know that isn’t true.”

He signaled with one hand. Ann began to bolt. “I don’t need you anymore.”

She never reached the door. Something slammed into her back, knocking her to the floor. Her chest felt hot. Something wet was pooling against her chest. She gasped for breath.

The Courser stepped out of the shadows, rifle leveled at Ann’s head. She coughed and tried to ignore the metallic taste in her mouth. Fitting, that she would die like this, just before she got the chance to make things right. The only thing that would make it more appropriate was if Nora was holding the rifle.

Ann almost laughed. She really did hate that woman.

Footsteps shuffled along the floor behind her. “Not alive, anyway. You could have been a part of all this. You could have birthed a new generation of Synths, just as I did. We could have done so much.”

Father padded closer. _For fuck’s sake, get up. You can’t die to someone wearing goddamn slippers._

“But I suppose you still will be a part of this. More than most, really. You just won’t have the pleasure of seeing it.”

Ann tried to push herself up. Her arms felt weak. With a gasp she managed to roll herself over, eyes squinting into the strangely bright lights. Still she met his eyes. She would not die face down on the floor. “The pleasure of what, watching you play God?”

The monster laughed. “Someone must, in this world.”

She spat. One last, pleasing gesture of defiance. “Go to hell.”

Father sighed. “Kill her, but try not to damage her chip.”

There was a blinding flash of blue light, and as everything faded away, she thought she heard Rita’s voice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading. It has been an enormous pleasure writing this story and I hope you've enjoyed reading it just as much. As always, those of you leaving kudos and comments are my favorite people of ever. I love everyone at this bar.
> 
> Yes, there will be a sequel, and it will be the last installment in Papergirl. As much as I want this to go forever, I do have an ending in mind, and there are other stories that need to be told. However, Piper will always hold a small piece (read: all) of my heart, so if you ever want more fluff, angst, or adventure with the Commonwealth's best reporter, you only need ask. I'm always happy to take prompt fills, even if they are only a few words long.
> 
> As always, you can find me on Tumblr under pinguinosentado. Thanks again for making this such an enjoyable experience.


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